I'm not very good about posting here anymore, am I? You should probably blame my awesome friends, who hear most of the ideas and stories I have to tell via instant messenger, which means I'm not left with a strong urge to write about them here on my LJ. Also, when I'm not stressed out, I have less to process here.

Anyway, I feel like I should record the information that I am now officially a Sales Associate at Walmart in the Jewelry Department. I have . . . mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, I need the money very badly. (Living on $200 a month all summer was . . . interesting.) And my coworkers in the Jewelry Department are all quite pleasant and fun. In fact, the work atmosphere is surprisingly pleasant, at least on the human end.

But then, you've got the corporate end. And that's not so fun. I've had to sit through hours and hours of what they call CBLs (computer-based learning)--it's basically a Powerpoint slide narrated by a very bored voice actor, with a quiz at the end. Some of them are to convey important information (like how to pierce ears or operate a cash register), but a lot of them are just corporate policies for convincing the employees that Walmart cares about them. For example, they REQUIRED me to go in and work up a 'career plan' for my time at Walmart. Sam Walton said, "You don't have to leave Walmart to change careers." . . . seriously, the rest of my life at Walmart? I would rather stab my eyes out.

Then there's the obvious downsides, like spending eight hours inside of a Walmart. Brr.

( What's going on in the rest of my life, in list format )

My brain amazes me.

I knit while I do things, like read websites and watch movies. And, sometimes I'll be working in a simple pattern, like a ribbing, but with one or two spots when I need to pay attention and do something different. In this case, I'm working on a slip stitch rib, but in four places around the hat, I have to break that pattern because I have little columns of garter stitch going.

(That paragraph probably made no sense to those of you who don't knit, but all you need to know is that in four places, I have to do something different that requires paying attention.)

So, I'll be just blowing along, not looking, and suddenly, my brain will go, "HANG ON! There's a problem!" And I'll look down, and, sure enough, I've blown past the garter stitch.*

This happens a lot when I'm knitting--I'll just be breezing along, and suddenly a tiny little alarm will go off and I'll look down to discover I need to fix something. Maybe I'm trying to knit into a stitch that was split on the previous row, or maybe I'm trying to knit something that should be purled.* But, it's always a little weird. Just, knowing how much my brain has internalized the knitting, that not only can it do the mechanical stuff, it can tell there's a problem, all without any conscious attention.

Brains are awesome.


* My fingers do get a clue, on that one because the purl stitches are oriented differently on the needle than the knit stitches. If you're curious, it's called combined knitting.

Finally, after literally years of wanting to learn to spin, I'm doing it! I have a drop spindle my stepdad made for me, and I've already blown through my first batch of wool roving. (I just got a pound of wool in the mail today . . . I've already spun up two ounces of it.) I'm now wearing my very first item made out of handspun yarn, a really cute (and warm!) hat.

And, oddly enough, it took spinning to finally get me addicted to Ravelry . . . I've had my account for a long time, but now I can take advantage of all the great spinning forums! Maybe I'll even start posting my finished objects now . . . anyway, those of you who are fibery sorts, if you're on Ravelry, look me up! My account is museofastronomy.

I'm still off the Internet--probably until finals end--but I wanted to check in really quick. It's funny, because even though I have a million really important things all looming, I don't really feel that stressed. Can you believe that? Being off the Internet probably doesn't hurt, and I think the beautiful weather might have something to do with it. Anyway, I'm not arguing--if I can feel this content this close to finals, either I'm going crazy, or I'm making progress.

Tomorrow, I have to get up early, because a lady from a local Baptist church heard about me collecting for Afghans for Afghans, and she wanted me to come to their crafting group and show them how to make a few things and talk about the project. I have to admit, I'm kind of intimidated. I imagine it will be a room full of ladies old enough to by my mother (or grandmother). I mean, I have lots of experience with tutoring and teaching and everything, and by every account I've read, knitters are a super-nice bunch almost anywhere you go . . . but still, the idea of tackling a group of older Baptist ladies intimidates me a little. I'll try to remember to update to let you know how it goes.

Just gotta make it through a couple more weeks.

This is an AWESOME MEME courtesy of amberdulen! Since I knit, whatever you end up with will probably be knit, but you never know . . .

I will send a handmade gift to the first 3 people who leave a comment here on my blog. I don't know what that gift will be yet, but you will receive it within 365 days. The only thing you have to do in return is pay it forward by making a similar agreement on your blog.

Aaaaand GO!

Um . . . I haven't been posting a lot, because I haven't really been doing much on the Internet lately . . . haven't been in the mood. I have lots of stuff I could post about . . . I still kind of want to write a little essay about the last Harry Potter book . . . but it's hot here, and we don't have an air conditioner, and I'm lazy.

I have been knitting, though! I've knit three pairs of socks since I've been home. Four, actually, if you count the tiny pair I just finished for charity. I also made a pirate hat. I'll share pictures eventually. And, I entered one of my pairs of socks in the county fair and won a blue ribbon. That would be really impressive, except I suspect that they were the only entry in that class. Also, the prize for first place was, get this, ONE DOLLAR. Whoa baby, careful, you'll spoil me! I think it's completely hilarious. I need to blow it on an ice cream cone at McDonalds . . . that's about the only thing I can buy with it.

Heh. One dollar. It cracks me up every time I think about it.

Tomorrow is my 21st birthday, and I managed to almost forget about it. Which is a pretty remarkable feat, given how many things there are to remind me--my mom's birthday is exactly a week before mine, and I remembered that. And my train leaves exactly a day after my birthday, and I remembered that too. Anyway, before anyone asks, no, I'm not going to go get smashed. I might go shopping at the Salvation Army.

Actually, the only really annoying thing about it is that my learner's permit expires on my birthday, and I don't have my license yet. I can mostly drive now. There is some small chance I may take my driver's test tomorrow, even though I believe myself to be totally unprepared for it. If not, I'll have to try it at Christmas break, but it'll be a lot trickier without a learner's permit. Bah.

Also, the mosquitos here are horrible. I have eight or nine bites on my right leg alone, and I sustained all of them while SITTING INDOORS ON MY COMPUTER. My body reacts pretty badly to mosquito bites, too*, so they get all swollen and red and unattractive and itch like heck. I've been applying various creams and ointments, but it's still super irritating. And I happen to live in the worst county of the worst state in the country for West Nile. I'm not particularly worried about it--the chances of having any noticable problems even if I happened to be infected are really low, but it just makes everything so much more fun.


*I'm not kidding. When I went to Greece, it was horrible. I got a bite on my wrist so bad that I actually still have a scar there, two years later. My theory on that is that my body was less immune to Greek mosquitos, since I haven't been exposed to them my whole life.

My yarn has been in Charlotte, NC, since 12:31pm Saturday. I keep checking to see if it's left Charlotte yet, but nope. Still there. I can't even do anything with the yarn when it arrives (paper to write!), but I want it here!

I spend most of yesterday and part of today (when I wasn't reading about Dionysus), wrestling Movable Type to the ground, pinning its arms behind its back and pulling its CSS, and the result? the middle knitter, my new hobby-blog!

First and foremost, no, this doesn't mean I'm switching away from LJ. LJ is very good at the things it's suited for: a place to vent the days frustrations, a place to ramble, and most importantly, a place to keep in touch with people. But, I've been hankering for a "real" blog for some time now. I wanted some place I could post very long entries with lots of photos, without feeling compelled to use a cut. I also wanted a place I could link to when I leave comments places, something more suitable than my LJ. (And, yes, I know that I did try keeping a school blog, and failed miserably, but I really thing this on will survive--it's exactly what I need.) Also, I felt a little guilty to be paying for webspace that I wasn't really moving. (Speaking of which, I may eventually actually buy a domain name for the blog, but it's not in the budget right now. Anyway, if I do buy on, the arraskysong.com/middle url will still work.)

Mostly I'll be posting about knitting, but I'm also going to use it to talk about my hobbies in general--I tend to hop around from one hobby to another, and that'll give me a place to talk about them, or post relevant stuff. There is a feed, so in theory we could set up a LJ feed so that you all would be able to read it through your LJs, but in my experience those can be a little finicky, so I'm going to wait and see if there's demand.

So, you should all go visit, and maybe leave comments? (I like comments.)

Today in "Things we overheard that we wish we hadn't"*:

"No, I can't. That requires a turkey baster, and a few male friends, which I don't have."
-- Virginia on the phone with the so-called "boyfriend"

Last night, I had a dream that I was being chased around campus by an evil, hypnotist lace knitter. I kid you not. I was up in one of the dorms, with a woman and her husband, and there was a campus security cop lurking around the corner watching them. The man and wife were examining a very finely made lace flower pot cover. The security guy was watching to see if they were the evil lace knitters that he was apparently looking for, and apparently the way they bandied about technical terms convinced him that he was.

(By the way, Dream!Me figured out that they were lace knitters by examining the flower pot and discovering a small stretch of stockinette stitch.)

Anyway, I was sitting talking with these two people and growing steadily more uneasy. I shared with them that I too was a knitter, and that's about the time that things went weird. Pinwheel spirals appeared in her eyes, and she leaned in closer. I backed up, and I actually said, out loud, "Um, why are your eyes all swirly?" Then I realized that her husband's eyes were the same way. And the security guy stepped out, and his eyes were swirly too. I took off running. The rest of the dream consisted of me running and occasionally glancing behind me to see that she was still chasing, and still swirly eyed.

I don't think there are any good ways to interpret this dream.



*An abbreviation of "Things we overheard that we wish we hadn't, so we're posting it on LiveJournal so you'll wish you hadn't too!"

I have a lot of things to do today, and I'm definitely behind in getting them done. This is mainly because my period started today (a full WEEK late) and I feel like crap. So, I'm posting to LiveJournal instead, and I'll get to work afterwards. Hopefully.

I spent most of the afternoon on both Friday and Saturday making this vest (warning--pdf link!), out of the Lion Brand Homespun donated on Friday. I was reminded of two facts that I had suppressed:

1) Working with Lion Brand Homespun is a pain in the butt. It splits like the devil, coils annoyingly, and is generally nasty to work with. I did my first two projects in this yarn (a hat and a scarf), and I'm surprised I didn't abandon knitting entirely. However, the fabric it produces is soft and pleasant. (I love the hat and scarf--it was making them that was annoying.)

2) I hate purling, so taking on a project knit flat in stockinette stitch was probably kind of silly. I did teach myself, though, how to knit back backwards, which didn't prove to be useful on the long stretches of stockinette (just as slow as purling and not as automatic), but was very useful when working those little shoulders. At seven stitches wide, turning the entire vest every time I finished a row would have been a pain.

Anyway, here's a picture of the vest, in front of the Stack O' Fish (up to 28 now--only seven to go!):

( Read more... )

The camera angle makes it look a little squatter than it actually is, though it's true I could have stood to make it taller. I'm also (as always) concerned about warmth, but . . . I guess I'll just try to make sure the next thing is warmer. Hopefully it'll be better than nothing. I feel like I should use the yarn that's been donated, but I do have some wool leftover from the sweater that I plan to make into something before the deadline--mittens, I'm thinking, and maybe another hat. That'll be warmer.

Got another Dulaan!SBC update for you! (In case you've missed my involvement in this, posts are archived here.)

Remember how I said President Muhlenfeld was going to donate a sweater? Well, I saw her in the dining hall today, and she let me know that she had just dropped off a couple sweaters and a bunch of yarn at the Chaplain's Office! I picked them up right after lunch, and here's a picture of the Dulaan haul so far:

( I hide my photos because I care! )

With Betsy's two sweaters (the teal one on top, and the cream colored one on the bottom), and with the pair of blue mittens donated by Sheila Alexander in Development, the total number so far is 12 items. I think we're doing pretty well, for having been at this less than a month.

Also, I continue to knit fish. Fish after fish after fish. As soon as I bind off one, there's another one just waiting for me. But it's not the fish I'm getting tired off so much as the cheap acrylic yarn. Last night, I happened to grab the ball of wool I used to make my own Dulaan sweater, and I practically melted, it felt so good after touching nothing but rough acrylic for so long.

Anyway, here's a picture of the stack of fish so far:

( Under the cut! )

You can't see in the picture, but I used black yarn to sew eyes onto every fish, and they're very cute. When the blanket is finished, it will look like it is made of multi-colored goldfish crackers! There are 21 finished so far, and half of another on the needles. I WILL make it to 35. Then I WILL seam them together into a (hopefully) attractive blanket. And then I will throw it in the washer and the dryer a couple times to soften it up.

This weekend will be occupied with taxes, writing a dance paper (seriously, why the heck do I have a paper in YOGA?), taking the quiz that got postponed on Thursday, and Mary's Spring Party on Sunday, which is going to be a Big Deal with lots of Good Eats. But in between (or during?) all of that, I hope to knit. Among the yarn donated by Betsy were several balls of Lion Homespun, which I think will make a nice soft baby sweater. I figure on a baby it won't matter so much that it's not wool, especially since the Homespun is nice and soft.

EDIT!: Remember how I said that my hometown paper got the press release for that news article about Dulaan? Well, I just found out that they published it this week! It's up on their website, here. But you don't really need to read it, since it's exactly the same as the article on Sweet Briar's news page. It's just exciting, because maybe that will get people back in Delta County participating, which would be AWESOME.

Since this project is becoming something of an obsession, here's a fun-and-photo filled post about how Dulaan!SBC is coming together.

I currently have 20 items pledged, and I've received nine of them. I'm crossing my fingers that people will get me their items in time, and I'm trying my best not to get discouraged by the relatively small output--it helps to tell myself that those items represent nine Mongolian children who will be warmer this winter. There isn't anything insignificant about that.

Here are the items so far:
( Includes cute little sweater and mittens! )

I got the big batch of donated yarn on Monday!
( Photo of donated yarn )

Fortunately, I stumbled quite by accident upon the concept of tesselated fish blankets. A little poking revealed that someone had worked out a pattern to mimic the one that had been published years ago in a magazine. It's more interesting than knitting squares, and with an even cooler result.

( Fish! )

. . . I think this might be morphing into a knitting blog. Whoo boy. Don't worry--you know the schoolwork angst will be back soon.

I said I'd post about how Dulaan!SBC is going, so here it is! The news article went up on the college website today, and it will be in the faculty/staff newsletter as well. A press release also got sent out to local papers and the paper in my hometown.

If you're interested, here's the link.

It's cool! I wish my goal (20 items) sounded a little more ambitious, but honestly, trying to introduce a charity project on a college campus the month before finals is . . . basically crazy. I'll set a higher goal next year. Oh and also, that "unbelievably beautiful shawl" is just my full-of-mistakes, made-from-cheap-acrylic, Tri-Aran-Angle that I made over spring break. People seem really impressed by it, and I've been having the hardest time convincing them that it really wasn't that challenging (other than the miles of garter stitch), and that I really am still a very amateur knitter.

Anyway, I now have 12 items now on the "pledged" list, and I've received two of them (if you count my sweater, which I do). I know that one scarf is finished, but still needs to be delivered, since it's from someone who lives off-campus. I think, given that I'm a month from the deadline, that I'm doing fairly well. I've got someone donating yarn, which I hope to use to draw more knitters into the project--I'll be picking that up on Monday. Things are coming together!

If only I should be so lucky with my Socrates paper.

I'm behind in EVERY CLASS, and I have a paper due Thursday.

BUT!

I've been talking today with a lady from college relations, and she's going to put an article about the Dulaan Project up on the website, as well as sending out a press release to the local paper, and she's even going to inform my local paper all the way back in Colorado!

AND!

I've been sending e-mails all evening about the Dulaan Project--I've now got 9 items pledged, as well as a donation of yarn coming in. Students are beginning to contact me, even!

AND!

Last night I finished the sweater, and it's really cute! (I am, however, barred from all further knitting until I get through the latest schoolwork snarl of papers and tests.)

AND!

In the Dulaan excitement, I totally didn't see the e-mail notifying me that my Honors Summer Research Project has been approved! Prof. Casey had to point it out to me. That means I'm going to spend the summer studying Greek mystery cults! BOOYAH!

So, I'm in surprisingly high spirits, for being incredibly behind and over my head in work (that isn't getting done).

My latest knitting "thing" is the Dulaan Project. I found out about it over Spring Break, and now I'm both knitting for it and trying to organize Sweet Briar to do the same. The first has been quite successful (picture below!)--the second, somewhat less.

What is the Dulaan Project? Well, there's a flier here (PDF format) with all the information. Basically, they're collecting handknit items to send to poor people in Mongolia to help them survive and live during Mongolia's severe winters. The more I find out about it, the more passionate I feel about participating, so I'll give you a few links: There's a video on YouTube here, and Mossy Cottage Knits has regular updates on the project.

Since I only found out about the project towards the end of Spring Break, I was a bit late in trying to bring it to my school, but I thought it would be worth a shot. I spent yesterday afternoon plastering the campus in fliers, and the Chaplain's office sent out an e-mail for me. The latter proved to be very useful, because so far, the four people who have contacted me (not counting the people I've nagged), have all been either staff and faculty, no students yet. I find this kind of discouraging, but at the same time, I still got the warm-fuzzies from the people who did contact me--I even got a pledge of a scarf and a hat from the wife of a professor! My goal is to collect 20 items to send to Dulaan before the end of the semester. (It's not a huge number, but it's such short notice. I'll shoot for more next year, when we'll have more time.) Out of those 20, I currently have six items pledged, and a few possible others. Cross your fingers for me! (And if you're reading this from Sweet Briar, get involved! Actually, if you knit at all, get involved, but you're gonna have to ship your own things in.)

As for me? I'm working on a child's sweater right now, and I have to say, it is adorable, on account of being tiny. It's my first sweater, which is exciting, and since it's so small, it's going very quickly. Like really quickly--I started on Thursday evening, and I finished the body tonight. All that's left is the sleeves.

( Sweater in progress! )

Spring Break is going well! I got to start knitting again! I'm making this, and for once I'm actually using exactly the yarn the pattern specified. Mostly that's because the pattern specified Caron Simply Soft, which means I can make the whole thing for less than six dollars--for three skeins. I'm a cheap knitter. You have to be when you're dirt poor and in college. I'm even using the same color she did, but that's just because it's a pretty color. I picked the pattern because I wanted to do some more work with cables, without committing to anything too complex. (Eventually I want to make myself something like this, only without the spider.)

And it's a nice pattern. It'll make a cute shawl. I'm quirky enough to pull off a shawl. The pattern isn't so much "a garter stitch shawl with a cable border" as "two strips of fun cable bookending an interminable stretch of garter stitch". Since I'm increasing by two stitches every other row, the stretch of garter stitch keeps getting longer. But, actually, it's sort of a good thing--the cable border keeps me interested, and the garter stitch lets me multi-task. Win-win! I'm not crazy about the tassels, so I'm going to leave the corners open unless something catches my eye to put there.

And it could be worse. It could be stockinette--then I'd have to purl all the way across in back. Yuck.

Hm. I should make myself a knitting icon.

I haven't talked much here about the fact that I knit. Mostly this is because I have limited free time and would rather spend that time knitting than writing about knitting. Also, I don't really want to turn this into a knitting journal and thus lose any readers I do happen to have. (Though, I guess if you're interested enough to read about my stupid essays and skin diseases, then a little knitting probably won't drive you away.) I haven't really had time to knit recently, because of the previously mentioned stupid essays. But, I just finished a little project and I need to brag.

( Read more... )

I took yesterday off from the Internet. It actually felt pretty good--I think it's possible that a week at my dad's with nothing to do but surf the Internet and knit made me kind of tired of being online. So, last night, instead of getting online, I finished the hat I was working on (it only took two days, and it's really cute), and read a book. Now I have to catch up on my friends page and all the webcomics I missed, but I think it was worth the break.

Yesterday I went back to Junction and got the ribbon changed in my dry socket. Right after she put it in, it felt great--it was the first time in a week I haven't felt pain at all there. The effects wore down after a few hours, but it really does seem to be close to recovery. Today I ate some real food--just soft bread and some chunkier soup than usual--I could kind of chew. It hurt some, but it was okay. It's so nice to be on the mend--this was really kind of an ordeal. Put me out for a week. I'm so happy now that it's almost over!

As mentioned above, I'm knitting now. I taught myself how a couple weeks ago, but I'm finally getting into the swing of things. I bought a lot of yarn in the past few days--I want to take some back to school so that I can make things while I'm there. It's nice to have a new hobby, but I'll be glad when the initial rush of it is over. I tend to get pretty obsessive about my hobbies right at first, so it'll be nice when things settle down. For now, though, at least I'm enjoying myself. Knitting is perfect for me, because I'm such a fidgety person, and it's like fidgeting, only it produces something. That's pretty cool. I'm really proud of the hat I just made myself--I'll post a picture at some point, but I might wait until after I finish redoing the scarf to match it. (I made it first, but then took the whole thing out because it wasn't very good.)

I went to my appointment, and they packed the painful socket with a "ribbon", soaked in some kind of medication that seems to be mostly oil of clove. It was kind of freaky having her put it in, though--she showed me the ribbon, and it was probably an inch long, and over a quarter of an inch wide. Pretty thick, too. I was like, how big of space do I have in there? But she got it all in--it's sticking out at the top, so I'm having to be careful not to dislodge it. It doesn't hurt as much now--it's still sore, but not the "I'm gonna cry myself to sleep now" it was last night. I'm still going to take a Lortab before I go to bed, though. When I distract myself, it doesn't bother me very much, but laying in bed at night, that's pretty much impossible. So, I'll medicate.

My mouth tastes like cloves, so most of the food I'm eating does as well. Still no solids--I might be able to handle them, but honestly, it hurts too much for me to want to try. I can subsist on creamy soups and yoghurt for a few days longer. My dad bought some Swiss Miss pudding cups, so I have chocolate, and I'm a pretty firm believer that with a good cup of soup and some chocolate you can fix a lot of things.

I go back on Friday to have the ribbon taken out. I think I might go back to my mom's house tomorrow--it's been nice being up here and spending time with my dad, and his house is definitely more comfortable (it's a heck of a lot warmer, and I can be online whenever I want)--but I think I'm ready to move back down. I have a new knitting project I want to start, and my supplies are down there. (Yeah, I taught myself how to knit! I've had a lot of time on my hands.)

So, anyway, I guess on the wisdom tooth front, things are looking up. Or, at least, they're beginning to give consideration to developing a plan for starting to initiate looking up. Whatever.