Hot Coals Only

Wow!

2008-03-10T21:40:00.000-07:00

This is so inspiring...today someone left a comment on this post saying that they had knit my dreadlock hat pattern. Unfortunately they didn't leave an e-mail or blog link, so I hope they read this: thank you so much for letting me know! I was so excited and wished I could see photos and bummed that there was no way to find this person on the net...then I saw a little link below the comment and found what appears to be yet another instance of this pattern in action! I'm so psyched!

http://community.livejournal.com/52_crafts/23905.html

Thanks to both knitters - this is a great feeling!

The End

2007-12-29T09:56:00.001-08:00

...of the year, that is. Not the blog, though it probably seems that way. And not knitting! I have been busy.

Since I last posted, I've gotten a car (yay!), painted my toenails, turned 22, eaten probably 2 heads of garlic (on Christmas night alone), blocked and sewed up four of nine squares of the mitered square blanket, and even started attaching pieces of the Gee's Bend Blanket (photos of said attachment are being saved for hopefully not too much later).

The diagram above is for exactly where I want each miter to end up. I had the miters laid out on my floor for a week, rearranging them until they were just what I wanted, but I had to a) pick them up off the floor and b) wash and block them, so I knew I would never remember without writing it down. It's been so helpful in putting these together!

As of this moment, the bottom two squares in the above photo are joined by a long strip of orange, and they look amazing. I've rediscovered my love of mattress stitching (vertically) with these projects. It's so incredibly neat and tames edges more than it would seem possible.

In the spirit of never finishing anything, I also started a clapotis in knitpicks sock yarn (I don't know if they make this anymore, the colorway is called "mesa"). I needed an airplane/train project over Thanksgiving, and none of my other projects would do (can you BELIEVE it?!)

I had a very nice Christmas in San Francisco with my dad and brother, and I hope you all had a nice holiday season as well. I went into shut-down mode because that's what I've done every year of my LIFE so far, having at least two weeks off school, but now that I had ONE DAY off for Christmas (plus two vacation days that I decided to burn) it wasn't very convenient. I got sick, and had to take off the rest of the week, and am now way far behind where I wanted to be on my vacation/sick hours accrued. Oh well.

Happy new year everyone!

PH0TO5, omg

2007-11-06T19:24:00.000-08:00

I found some batteries! Yay! (Could have just bought some instead of searching in boxes for the ones i *knew* i had? no!)

Unfortunately, I did not find them until after daylight savings time had ended, thus all my photos until about next April are going to be crappy night shots. Sorry!

Here's the mitered square blanket I've been working on since the AIDS Walk. Originally it was going to be three large squares by four, with six outlined in turquoise and three each of yellow and grey in a grid pattern. then, i realized that there wouldn't be a good way to place the yellow and grey squares so that none were exactly diagonal from another of the same color (does that make sense?), plus I realized that this blanket would need a border, and I was basically working with scraps from the lace log cabin blanket and my frogged Kyoto, so I didn't have that much yarn. Now it's just going to be nine squares, two each of yellow and grey and five of turquoise.

I love this project because I've barely been paying any attention to it - just knitting a square every two days on the BART as I ride to and from work, and all of a sudden I'm two thirds there!

My boyfriend is out of town all week (and these two weekends) for a neuroscience conference, and DST has ended, stranding me inside, basically, because I'm wary of walking around at night by myself, so I've been knitting like mad. This weekend I spent most of my time at various coffee shops working away alternately on the blanket and a lace shawl I've been working on/designing. Bad picture alert.

I was really excited about this, but now that I'm binding off I'm getting less and less jazzed. Basically, I went for an edging that's not going to enhance the thing at all, and I'm too sick of this project to try to frog back and do anything else. Plus, I kept running out of yarn and even though it's cheap-o mass produced crochet cotton, the dye lots are varying enough that I am sort of thinking of dip-dyeing this once all is said and done to hide the differences (we'll see about that). Frankly, as my first official FO of the year, as long as it's better on me than Kyoto was (I'm over it, I promise!), I'll take it.

I plan to block that tomorrow or Thursday night, depending on how it goes. I have all kinds of projects I want to work on, but I really need to clear the air of abandoned and long-running projects right now. A pre-New Year's purge is in the making. And maybe my blue shawl will turn out OK enough to write up the pattern. Or not. I keep thinking to myself that this has been a really bad "knitting year" and I want to get rid of that feeling before going into next year. I don't like trying to start with a clean slate when the dirty one's still hanging around somewhere.

Sorry about the rant the other day, there are just certain issues I really can't get past for anyone (and many that, admittedly, I don't make the effort to address in my own practices). I seethe with rage about reproductive rights, but eat restaurant chicken that probably came from some crappy factory farm. We do what we can - and we all do it differently.

Red Kettle Season

2007-11-04T13:44:00.001-08:00

It's about that time when the ubiquitous Salvation Army brings out their red kettles...and this year, like in years past, I won't be putting a dime toward their cause.

I hate to do this on a knitting blog, because it's not about knitting, but I feel like this needs to be said: openly bigoted organizations do not get my help. And actually, it does have something to do with knitting, because I was looking up Goodwill-type places in my neighborhood to shop for used sweaters for recycling yarn, and there's a SA store that I refuse to shop at. And you should to, if the following things upset you!

Salvation Army statement on marriage: "The Salvation Army affirms the New Testament standard of marriage, which is the loving union for life of one man and one woman to the exclusion of all others."

Salvation Army statement on homosexuality (why they NEED one is beyond me): "The Salvation Army believes, therefore, that Christians whose sexual orientation is primarily or exclusively same-sex are called upon to embrace celibacy as a way of life."

Articles on Salvation Army's refusal to offer benefits to same-sex partners and anti-gay policies:
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3827/is_199806/ai_n8784073
http://www.pfaw.org/pfaw/general/default.aspx?oid=4162
http://lifesite.net/ldn/2004/may/04052707.html
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/09/08/MNG09EK6N81.DTL&type=printable

Off the soapbox.

Yikes!

2007-10-21T19:44:00.000-07:00

A month and a half of no blogging! How do I stand it?

Thanks to all who are keeping me on bloglines. I'm knitting regularly - I just don't have much time to blog lately and can't seem to make any. I'm keeping up with most of the ones I read and sometimes log in to ravelry (hotcoalsonly). I also am rarely home to take photos when there's any decent natural light!

I can't promise when I'll be back to blogging regularly, but when I do I'll have a pattern up, probably for purchase, which I'm VERY excited about (not in terms of making ANY money off it...just having it out there!)

Right now I'm on hold with southwest airlines, trying to change my flight so I don't have to fly through the Los Angeles fires and 70mph winds tomorrow morning. Scary! I hope if anyone out there is from the affected areas or has family and friends there, that everyone is safe and that their homes are not in danger.

Take care, everyone!

Oh good god.

2007-09-09T21:00:00.001-07:00

At some point, I must have. I just don't remember.

Yes. Wait-listed myself for Ravelry. When? I have ZERO memory of this. But today, in my inbox, was an invitation. I'm in.

AHHHHH.

(username = hotcoalsonly)

Movin on Up

2007-09-02T16:47:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone! Wow, I had no idea it had been a whole MONTH since I posted here. Keri even came looking for me to make sure things were ok - thanks! I'm fine, just busy because I had to move...again. Yes, out of that beautiful house. Don't ask why - it's too pathetic. Friendships gone sour for stupid reasons. But I'd trade prettiness for not feeling like shit in my own house any day.

And guess what? The new place ain't so bad looking either! It's just two of us, and we have a great funky top floor of a house somewhere between the yuppie neighborhood and the italian/east african district. I love Oakland.

I changed my sidebar the reflect the fact that I am NO LONGER in college. But I'm still cheap. Don't worry about that!

Working the 9-5 is rocking my world, basically, because I don't have homework, I can knit on the train, and though I feel like I'm barely scraping by, I'm saving my money like a money-saving fiend. YAY!

My current train knitting, since I needed a portable project, is mitered squares made (mostly) from the SFKA Kyoto.*

Thanks to everyone who's still reading - I've been getting a few more evenings at home recently, and now that I found my camera cable I'll start doing the photos thang asap.

Oh, and HUGE congratulations to Cara. Seriously. Babies!

*trust me, you know what that stands for.

Ky-oh-no

2007-07-29T22:12:00.000-07:00

So, please focus on the weirdness of the sweater and not the weirdness of my facial expression, because sometimes red eye removal on the computer = crazy eyes.

Actually, in this photo it doesn't look half bad compared to what I see in person. But I'm sure you can see that the shoulders are super boxy and that the neck is a little, uh, huge. I think the smaller gauge of the elann.com Sonata vs the Tahki Cotton Classic made for a heavier sweater because there was more yardage used (and Sonata is much more dense). I love the colors and in fact, I would definitely consider going back to this sweater in a different yarn with similar colors (just, not anytime soon).

I was disappointed that this sweater didn't look good on me, and truth be told, I've been a little depressed that I didn't even have a "Finished Objects 2007" album on Flickr. No, I've really not completed anything besides this.

But as I thought about it, I made peace with my Kyoto failure. This is resilient yarn; it will frog well. The colors are great and with a few more added in, will be a good little blanket (remember yesterday's mitered square preview?)

Also, it's not as though I NEEDED that sweater and made the SACRIFICE of spending so many hours working on it. I knit because I love knitting, truly. I like to finish and use things, sure. If I never made anything useful, I probably would fall out of love with the art pretty quickly. It's not all about the product, though - the company, the support, the feeling of being a little more productive when I sit down to watch tv, the amazing feeling of thinking something up and actually creating it (or...sometimes not) - that's why I knit. Who doesn't have a failed sweater in their history? Who knits everything perfectly every time?

I figure I can feel even more justified in that (admittedly bargain) yarn purchase, too. I get twice the expected knitting time out of it!

So here's the real question: Do I buy a ball winder and swift before I begin to take this thing apart?

>: )

I Love Knitters!

2007-07-28T19:24:00.000-07:00

Yeah yeah, it's been a bit since the AIDS Walk. Oops!

I am so proud! Not everyone who signed up could make it, but those that did (L to R Jen, Michelle, me, Marissa) had a really good time. We raised some money, did some knitting, ate some free granola bars, and suckered some poor volunteer into taking this photo (the sun was in our eyes pretty bad...). And yes, that's a little mitered square I'm holding. Long-term project. I needed something portable. I am definitely looking forward to next year when I won't get so incredibly swamped with important events and duties in the months leading up to the walk.

See you in 2008!

Next came Stitch n Pitch at the SF Giants. We had so much fun last year that I brought my brother along this time (and he and my boyfriend kept their totebags...too cute).

The only thing I love more than knitters is the people who love knitters :)

The Gigantes gave the Diamondbacks a good game, but this year the knitting mojo wasn't quite enough to get a win (or a Bonds home run! on his birthday no less!) I did get some work done on my Gee's Bend Blanket, though! I am most of the way through the 3rd of 4 main squares, but I am almost out of grey yarn and I really need to go to Goodwill and find something that will work.

Tomorrow (ugh, I hope) I will post, finally, about Kyoto and it's sad fate. I want to rip it but I think all that work deserves at least a public vetting of that sweater's extreme wrongness first.

AIDS Walk or Bust

2007-07-12T21:39:00.000-07:00

Yes, the AIDS Walk is this Sunday. I have not NEARLY met my fundraising goal, I JUST NOW e-mailed the team with meet-up instructions, and I CAN'T BELIEVE it crept up on me like that.

I meant to make totebags. Maybe they will be post-walk thank-you prizes.

I meant to have a yarn contest. Maybe I will bring some goodies to the walk.

I meant to hound more yarn stores. Not much I can do about that now.

I'm really proud, though, that a few of us will be out there this weekend, walking for a cause. As a pilot run of the first Knitting AIDS Walk team I know of, I think this is a damn fine turnout!

Now, for the resolutions (who needs new year's...)

I WILL post an honor roll/donation total after the walk. Everyone deserves recognition!

I WILL bring my camera...and find my usb cord.

I WILL knit while I walk. Though maybe not the whooole time :)

I WILL talk to everyone that looks at us funny about how awesome knitters are.

I WILL be grateful for the support of this community as we support our larger (geographical) community.

***

I went back to my $1.50. Yes I did. It's back on the front burner, baby.

Job

2007-07-05T18:58:00.000-07:00

My new job rocks, but oh my god. It's 7pm and all I can think is, Thank god I can go to bed in three hours.

:)

The AIDS Walk is in ten days. PLEASE sign up if you are in the Bay Area, or make a general team donation! I completely underestimated how insanely busy I would be in the months leading up to this event, so I want to thank everyone who has helped me out at all with it. If you are signed up, rest assured I will e-mail you with pertinent info...as soon as I catch up on some sit-on-my-ass time.

Home Sweet Home

2007-06-10T09:55:00.000-07:00

First off - I feel really bad for not making it out to the WWKIP Day events in Berkeley. I really meant to go, but by the time I got dressed, did the dishes, folded the laundry, figured out our new locks, and forced myself to put my IKEA closet shelves together, I just made it to Berkeley by the time the knitting in the West Circle part was over. AND when I returned my graduation gown to the bookstore, they charged me a $10 late fee. Weak.

I am trying to use this weekend to recuperate and bring a little more calm into my life - I've been living out of suitcases, really missing my knitting (god knows where most of that is...a box somewhere), and generally being busier than ever before. I actually thought I'd have free time as soon as I graduated. Ha!

Anyway, I did get offered a fantastic job (by the skin of my teeth) and next week I'm driving to Sacramento to learn all about the California Environmental Quality Act before I start. I don't own a car so I rarely drive, and I have to say I'm a little nervous about all the freeway-ing between here and Sacto, but I think I'll be fine. It'll be a rental car, though, so I should drive it around town a little to get used to it!

So, because I still haven't unpacked my camera, I want to show you some photos of my new HOUSE that I'm renting for the year. It's basically the prettiest house I will ever get a chance to live in till I can afford to buy and fix one up myself. These photos are from before we moved all our crap in; it's kind of messy now (but we're working on it!) Also, imagine an incredibly comfy couch in front of the living room window.

That stove is original to the house - 1919 I think.

There's LAUNDRY in those folding doors. YAY!

The deck - I'm sitting out here now typing this. It's so nice in the mornings. Can't wait to get some better deck furniture (maybe with chair pads? ouch.)

Super cute backyard

This blue building in the background lights up at night. It's a restaurant that never seems to be open...

Anyway, that's the grand tour!

Don't forget - sign up or donate to the Knitters Against AIDS team! I will post about a drawing for team members/donors next week. The AIDS Walk is a month away!

Oh What I Want to Know

2007-06-06T18:09:00.000-07:00

Where does the time go?

Seriously, another whirlwind week. It's incredible - I just graduated, I feel like I ought to be taking it easy. Instead I'm working what's really only 30 hours a week but feels like a lot more, still putting my new place together (so tiring! oh man!), and can't seem to get myself to bed at a decent hour. I need a week in some remote place with nothing to do. The desert or something - it's been chilly in Oakland lately.

But am I taking a week off? To knit, drink iced tea, lie around reading magazines? No. Yesterday I interviewed for a hugely important full-time job. I don't have the background for it, but I learn really quickly, so I know for sure that I can do it (it's just about convincing the company that I am worth the risk!) It would be a great career move; in fact I feel pretty lucky to have even gotten an interview (they wanted someone with a master's). Helps to know someone on the inside who can circulate your resume (such as it is) for you.

So wish me luck! Guess what - I'd be on the train about 30-40 minutes a day if I get it. Knitting Time!

(Also, we now have a couch and a TV at our house. Two essential ingredients for making the time to sit on my ass and knit.)

UPDATE: I got the job! More later.

Back, Kinda

2007-05-30T19:09:00.000-07:00

I thought I'd post from my laptop at Stitch n Bitch tonight, since I forgot my knitting. Yeah.

I moved last weekend. I keep wondering when this "sorry I can't hang out, knit, blog, read things, or wear different pants" phase will end - it started when school got busy and hasn't let up. This week and next I have to clean the new house and unpack everything, and I'm actually employed, which is awesome but tough because I could use some free time. Last night ALL I wanted to do was knit for a while, but I faded before I had the chance, and forgot my knitting on the way to work today. Damn! Maybe this weekend?

I need to get my $1.50 back out and finish that blue lace thing I teasily blogged about a while ago. I think I'm going to use some of my graduation gift money for a swift and ball winder so I can wind my miles of recycled cotton for the blanket (which I still love) some other way than by hand. When I get them I'll also pull apart my Kyoto and hey! maybe finally blog about it.

Anyway, don't worry about me dropping off the face of the earth - it's just a busy time!

Pomp & Circumstance

2007-05-19T18:10:00.000-07:00

I graduated!

Or, as Ricky Bobby would say, "I have an application in to the Real World."

Dye Weather

2007-05-13T16:06:00.000-07:00

It's going to be 77 degrees out tomorrow, so I'd better take advantage and dye a batch of yarn! I need this greenish grey to be a greenish brownish black to go with my Gee's Bend blanket. I took it to Starbucks today to work on and met a nice newbie knitter and told her about the log cabin technique. She liked the idea...hope she tries it! And let me tell you, it was SO nice to get some time to drink coffee and knit today.

I love when people ask me about my knitting when I'm out in public (though one woman wanted me to knit her a sweater "if she ever got a little extra money to spend" and i didn't really want to tell her that she'd have to have a LOT of extra money to spend if she wanted a handknit...from a stranger!)

Happy Mother's Day to everyone out there - my mom's coming to town tomorrow for a whole week and I am really, really excited!

Hoooooo.

2007-05-12T12:33:00.000-07:00

Oh. Man. First of all, thanks to everyone who commented on my last post - it was so nice to get a little stream of encouragement in my inbox over the last few days. Seriously, it helped.

It was really hard to do all that work when I kept thinking, argh, I graduate next Thursday! Screw this! Plus, what I meant to be a 10-page paper for my Peace and Conflict Studies senior seminar turned into a 15-page paper, which was not so good because I decided to be a badass and write it all within 24 hours (ok, confession, I put it off, I suck). Anyway, I'm done with that and even though the assignment was really tough, I think I'm proud of my product. I'm not sure if I told you what the assignment was - "Write a paper using all six books from this semester." That was it. The books? Neuroethics, factory farming, civil war in Somalia, same-sex marriage in the US, jihad, and religion in conflict.

Hugghuughughh.

Then I had my Epic of Gilgamesh final yesterday, and that went well. I am really done except for a Spanish final next week. YAY! On my way home I took a bunch of photos on campus. If you're interested, check out my virtual tour of Berkeley flickr set. Now I'm off to clean my room and knit, for the first time in days. I may post again this evening about that!

School

2007-05-09T20:14:00.001-07:00

AHHHHH! SCHOOOOOOOL!

seriously.

Miters at Large

2007-05-04T12:30:00.000-07:00

From the Design Within Reach catalog my mom signed me up for:

Talk about Miter Madness (god, isn't that thing gorgeous?) Psychedelic stripey miters are taking over ze world!

I've been thinking about them, too. Though I've got plenty to work on before starting anything new, I've been looking at some of my leftovers of Elann.com Sonata.

This photo isn't really representative of the main colors of the blanket I'm planning in the back of my mind. Those will come from my Kyoto sweater, when I get up the gumption to rip it out (yes, I know I still haven't shown you. I'm so annoyed with it.) I have not decided between alternating main colors, as in the photo above, or matching main colors, as in Cara's blanket (she cast on with the same color for each miter in a square). I'll do some testing when school's out.

Speaking of which, most of my crafty time this week has gone to my graduation announcements! I couldn't decide on one color scheme at the paper store, so I bought three. The ginkgo is a rubber stamp. I'll show you the inserts next week.

I Knit...

2007-05-02T10:13:00.000-07:00

Really, I do.

I'm working on the second square of my Gee's Bend Blanket, but the first one isn't actually done yet. I'm waiting to order longer needles from knitpicks until they come out with their NEW SIZES in the classic circulars, which I was told would be July-ish. Since I still have plenty of smaller pieces of this blanket to knit, I'm sure I'll be fine waiting till then.

I would join Ann's slogalong with this, but you know? It's still exciting. I know it's just stockinette, and miles of it, but I love this project and I KNOW for a fact and a half that I'm going to love the blanket when I'm done. This is such a satisfying knit.

Most of my other knitting has had to wait around for the last few weeks as I've been bogged down in work, schoolwork, and tiny unimportant things like having a place to live next month, so my poor little $1.50 is still only at 75 cents or something, and my blue lace shawl that I hinted at a few posts ago is not going to be finished in time for its intended use. Such is life. But hey! We found a place!

A house!

In Rockridge!

I'm about 95% sure we're going to live there, so I won't go on and on about it until we have a move-in date set, but it's pretty and believe me there will be a lot of crafting going on there.

And, since I need a job and need to look sophistimacated, I finally got a haircut. Apparently it's self-portrait week on my blog.

Before

After!

I sort of miss my long hair but I know this looks a lot better. Also, it makes me look a lot more like my mom, I think. Which is fine with me.

I'm going to try to post again on Friday because this weekend we're going to the Beer Festival up in Boonville. I do actually want to sample beers without getting wasted, and J will be working the Bison tent there, so I may actually bring my knitting. And lots of sunscreen.

Orange Day

2007-04-28T16:45:00.000-07:00

Got my new memory card! That was incredible - I think I ordered it from overstock.com on Thursday and it was here waiting for me when I got home today. Their shipping is super cheap and kind of unbelievably fast. And DHL managed to get it to my apartment door, despite our intercom/buzzer being broken (I put up a sign)! I popped it in my camera, turned it on, and noticed that instead of the usual 75 or so photos it says it had room for, this time it showed: 1036. And that's super high-res! ZOMG!

Anyway, I'm so dead tired. I've been working a lot for this non-profit called Rebuilding Together as the Green/Recycling Coordinator, and today was our big home repair day. I didn't have to do any construction, but I still had to be there early, answer the phone, send off volunteers, and even bus around Berkeley for an hour when one of my volunteers didn't show up. But, dig the awesome orange shirt they gave me.

Also waiting in the mail for me was this awesome package from nona! My Spirit Award Prize! Better than I could have imagined, nona's prize included a pack of deliriously gorgeous silk hankies and instructions from Spin Off on knitting with them (unspun), a card by Cara which in itself is a prize (it's definitely going on my wall), a Starbucks card (do you KNOW how much paper-writing I'm going to be doing there in the next two weeks?), and a tin of really good fruit candy which, after I empty it in about 24 hours, will be a great second notions tin (my Raspberry Altoids tin is getting full).

Thanks nona! Came on the best of all possible days, too.

Knitting: soon! Can you tell how tired I am by the sheer number of exclamation point in this post?

My Lame Week

2007-04-26T22:07:00.000-07:00

Sorry, no photos, the new memory card is in the mail.

Which I can't get, because I lost my mail key.

And if they send it UPS, like my Old Navy order was, I'll never get it because our apartment's buzzer/intercom system is broken. They came twice while I was home and couldn't get ahold of me.

Tuesday night I bussed down to a restaurant in North Berkeley to meet some friends from high school. No one was there. Waited. Waited. Waited. Went to kill time at Office Depot, came back, waited. Called boyfriend for bus schedule, bussed home. Saw e-mail noting the reservation had been made for Wednesday night.

Wednesday I got up early and went to Job #1 to work on a presentation for a Friday morning event. Went to class for an hour. Went to Job #2 for three and a half hours. Went to Stitch n Bitch. No one was there. Waited. Waited. Waited. Checked my phone every 5 minutes to make sure it was really Wednesday. Bussed to restaurant, praying same hostess wasn't working and wouldn't tell my friends I'd been there for an hour the night before. She wasn't. Had dinner. Had too much beer.

Needed it.

Sucky Spanish test today (250 word essay on what the world would be like if it were taken over by machines).

So tired.

Have to be at event tomorrow at 8:30 am. Today I find out my presentation has been canceled. But I still have to go. AGHH

At least the Giants are KICKIN ASS, yeeeah.

In Which I Ask for Favors

2007-04-19T10:00:00.000-07:00

First and foremost, I really need help getting the word out about Knitters Against AIDS. I know it's early still but I am going to ask you, if you have a blog, to do me a favor and post a link to http://knitAWSF.blogspot.com somewhere. Even if you aren't in the Bay Area, one of your readers might be. Thanks in advance guys!

So, about those swatches.

The Regents' and Chancellor's Scholars Association puts on an annual art show on campus and I decided to enter some knitting this year to represent. These are done in Elann.com Sonata (and a shred or two of Cotton Classic), based on the ideas in nonaknits' short row tutorial. I am going nuts with ideas over here. I decided that they looked sort of like landscapes, if you wanted them to, and for the third one I really went with that idea. I like it, but it strays from the weird simplicity of the first one. And yes, when I showed up an hour and a half into the art show, I saw that they had placed the displays sideways. I walked over, corrected them, realized that most of the guests had come and gone, thought oh well and went home. Particularly embarrassing because I had mentioned in my bio/blurb that they were meant to look like landscapes, and placed sideways they really, really don't.

I don't know what I'm going to do with these. From the sound of your comments Tuesday, I oughtta put them on Etsy...just kidding. I might make a few more and decide if I want to frame some for my wall. Maybe I could do a set for my mom in her colors. Boy would I get off cheap for Mother's Day!

My Gee's Bend Blanket is moving along. I'd show you a picture of it but it may just be that my trusty old Nikon CoolPix 2000, circa 2002, has kicked the bucket. I'm getting simultaneous "Memory Card Full" and "Card contains no images" messages, so really it's probably just the memory card. I'm learning tricks as I go, knitting in ends, finding the right ratio of stitches to rows when picking up along the edges, trying not to make everything perfectly straight and perfectly sized. Everyone keeps saying, "Oh my god, that is going to take you forever!" We'll see, this is actually my favorite project right now. Sorry, $1.50, I just can't deal with your tubular cast-on at the moment.

As non-knitting life things go, I am still searching for an apartment and a job. I need both pretty quickly. My task for the next couple months is to schmooze with as many Planning types as I can, making some preliminary connections and being, oh god, a little pushy about asking for jobs or advice. I don't like to be pushy. I feel so...bothersome. I got a great piece of advice Monday, though, that it is apparently very flattering to be asked what you do and even for a favor, as it makes you feel sorta important and good about your work. So off I'll go, making everyone I meet feel important and good about their work.

PS HAHAHA! I went to research memory cards for my camera, almost hoping it wouldn't be worth replacing (like, I should just get a new camera), and I noticed a few things. My memory card is 16MB, many of the cards out there seem to hold at least 1GB now, and I saw a bunch under $15. Seriously?

Horizon

2007-04-17T11:17:00.000-07:00

I was going to write about these, about the art show where I displayed them last night, about how when I got there, they had set them up upside down and sideways (oops). But now all I can really think about is the students, staff, and faculty at Virginia Tech, and how much like them I feel right now.

Faithful blog readers, to whom I apologize for being too busy with life to post lately, will know that I am a college student at UC Berkeley. You may also know that my kid brother, survivor of leukemia and a couple of major car accidents, goes here too. So you might understand why the thought of him being on campus today, tomorrow, for the rest of his college career has my stomach sinking this morning.

We're fairly well prepared for certain things. You have to be when you live within 50 miles of seven major fault lines, and the Big One is probably - more than probably - going to hit within the next 20 years. We have a meeting place in town, an open space far enough from most buildings. We know to call our mom and, in case we can't call each other, call her again and again to relay messages through her. We need to make our earthquake kits.

But how do you prepare for something that isn't so foreseeable? This makes me think I really shouldn't turn my cell phone off in class, just put it on vibrate in case an important text message needs to come through. It makes me think of when I used to be a campus tour guide. What do you tell parents showing up for college tours today? How can you promise them that their kid will be safe?

What do you do about a danger you just can't see?

Busy

2007-04-11T20:48:00.000-07:00

I suck. I meant to post last weekend. I am just so busy looking for a job and an apartment. I want to tell you about Kyoto - the sad story of Kyoto. Maybe tomorrow, if the light is good. Meanwhile, here's a shot of a project I haven't blogged about - I don't want to jinx it.

Back with more soon.

PS Wow, Kurt Vonnegut died. My senior yearbook quote was from him. My boyfriend and I text-messaged each other at literally the exact same moment to tell each other.