Krafty Like A Fox

Practice

2012-01-13T10:04:00.001-08:00

Last week I watched a documentary on Harper Lee and To Kill A Mockingbird called "Hey, Boo". It was sort of sweet and nostaligic--not exactly hard-hitting, but a lovely way to while away the evening. I wrote a little bit afterwards and practiced writing in a Lee voice.

"I was born in a city that feels like a small town, a little grey stone on the edge of the Puget Sound. I was born to a small brown house with a small backyard on 29^th Street, and soon after, my parents moved us all to a little white house up the street. For most of my childhood, the front and back yards were unfenced and clear of everything but a generous sidewalk for chalk drawings, and the ramble of a garden that my mother watered in summers and weeded several times a year. It grew pansies and nasturtiums and rhodies anyway.

Our lawn was the kind that movies try to capture with astroturf and spraypaint. Thick-bladed dark green grass in the spring and fall, plush and springy as a shag carpet, and soft on the soles of our feet. I was barefoot less often than my three older sisters, as I was fastidious about my appearance. Some outfits are not put together without the right pair of shoes.

When I was nine or maybe ten, my father planted six fruit trees. There were three in the front yard, and three on the parking strip. The five apple trees never quite grew into themselves; one even had the audacity to up and die, leaving the parking strip with an empty dirt circle my mother filled with poppies.

The remaining Asian pear tree grew as taller as our two-story house, and despite my father's efforts to prune, exploded every spring and summer into a glorious riot of leaves and tiny hard pears. In the fall they produced a sweet, crisp fruit, and landed with soft thumps on the lawn.

Eventually, Dad built a picket fence around the front, which made the house look a little more grown-up, like a blazer on a high-school student. For several years the pickets had textured scars from the wood wasps who pillaged it for nesting."

I don't write hardly at all about my own life. (At least, not on purpose.) But one of the themes I keep coming back to in plays is how one defines home, and what it means. Until a few months ago, I haven't had a home since graduating high school. By the end of college, I had been in the same room in the campus apartments for two years, and I thought of that as home.

When I was young, I read the "Little House" books over and over again, and one of the things that I never understood was when Laura would say that home is carried in your heart. Lately, I've come to understand that home is in you, wherever you are. The relationships we have are vital and essential to being a happy human being, and not in the least the relationship with yourself. At some point, you're going to be alone in a room, and if you are not at home with yourself, it's going to be a fairly awkward and uncomfortable experience. Home is where the heart is, but it's much more specifically where your heart is.

My challenge for you today, darling friends, is to be kind to yourself. You are good enough. You are worthwhile.

Commune

2012-01-08T16:36:00.000-08:00

I've never not lived with other people. Although I had the luxury of my own room for six years, the minute I went off to college, I left it behind. I lived in an apartment with five other people for all four years, and then my first sublet in LA was a shared room with a nervous, silent UCLA student who spent her time studying and watching Korean soap operas. I don't think she ever left the room, unless it was for class or groceries.

After a string of more and less successful sublets following, Big D and I decided to move in together. I had spent most of my free time at his place anyway, and the months of long-distance that anchored our relationship made us think that we would be able to handle the change well, and that ultimately it would be a good thing. (And so far, so good.)

Most people have lived with a significant other. Most people have lived with a roommate. There are big differences, and though I'm not breaking new ground, these points cannot be overstated.

When someone else takes out the trash, be very grateful. Trash is icky. It's smelly, it's heavy, and it's often drippy. Our dumpster has a lid that, when at rest, is level with my eyes. That means that if the bag is really full (and I wouldn't take it out any other way), I have to lift it like a sack potatoes in one hand and hold the lid up with the other. It can and will land on my head, leaving me covered in garbage. But David is 6'4”. He never has to deal with head-garbage. When he takes out the trash, I have one more blessed day smelling like person instead of landfill.
The luck of being with a person who has the same TV viewing habits as you do cannot be overstated. We live in TV land. We are a TV watching society. We love our screentime. I'm not ashamed, nor am I going to change my habits. That said, David and I don't own an actual working television. We watch our shows online, in blocks, mostly on my sister's Netflix account. That we can look at each other, nod, and put on 17 episodes of X-Files in a row means that we get to spend quality evening time together without either of us feeling disconnected or resentful. I don't make him watch trashy ABC Family shows and he doesn't make me watch depressing meditations on the state of humanity. (Though we may have something in common there.)
If you lived with people who make things, you live in a messy home. David and I are both makers. He's a musician and a woodworker, I'm a writer and a knitter, and we both cook. So he's got a stash of wood and I've got a stash of yarn, we have his 'n hers Kitchen Aid Mixers, and all the tools that go along with making stuff instead of buying it. Lots of instruments, for example, plus amps and record players and sheet music, Dutch ovens, scripts, and knitting needles, and many books. And when you come right down to it, when we have free time, we don't think “oh yes, it's a perfect time to pick up the living room”, we think “oh yay, now I can finishing that sweater/boil varnish/practice that concerto/write a little”. And ne'er the twain shall meet.

It's been a joyous thing, cohabitating. There have been some adjustments, changes, and adaptions, but really. People are meant to live in community, even if they're just communities of two. (Sidenote: Community the show is coming back this spring. This is as great as the Inspector Spacetime Christmas special!)

Salutations

2011-12-31T18:03:00.000-08:00

2011 was the year I didn't mark time. I worked too much at stuff I hate. I played too little. I hardly wrote. It's a been a weird year with my family. It's been an easy road to self-loathing, and a difficult one to self-acceptance. (And let's be fair: that's true for me every year, and all the time. Call it an artist thing.)

A list:

I had a fewer than two months of days off this year, and most of those were filled with rehearsals. A week of that was for a funeral. That said, most of my mourning has been centered around change with the living. Change in relationships, change in circumstances. Change in space.

In 2011 I moved four times. It pales in comparision to 2010, when I moved eight times, but that's still too many. It took me 18 months in Los Angeles to find a home.

In 2011 I stage managed for the first time in five years. I said yes even though I was sure I would fail. I didn't. That was a good thing.

In 2011 I moved in with David. I didn't know how it would work. We survived long-distance, close distance, terrible jobs, unemployment, overwork, two deaths. But saying to someone you love, you love like it's your life's work, that you trust them to come up with half the rent and the utilities and fighting the surprise! roaches and cleaning duties—it's trust. And I didn't have a back-up. I always have a back-up plan.

It worked. It works. This is a good thing.

In October I bought a car. It was my very first grown-up purchase. She is my baby, my darling, my fuel-efficient Penny Lane, and terrifying. The car is a good thing. It has cut down on 90% of the cat-calling.

When I bought the car I found out my credit was fucked because SOME UNIVERSITY screwed up student loan notification. But Donna, the best collections agent ever, sorted me out. It was a good thing. (By the way, if you have student loan debt, consider consolidating it with the government. They're taking an extra quarter percent of interest off your average rate.)

In 2011 I tried to skip my birthday, but the cast of the perfect show didn't let me. That was a good thing.

In 2011 I tried to skip Christmas, but David's family didn't let me. That was also a good thing.

Somewhere between the end of formal education and Adulthood (marriage, children, death) there is a year that precipitates the most transition between who you were Then and who you are Now. There is a hallmark year, a year that simply must be painful and awful and wonderful. I think this was mine. There were surprising joys that lifted me up out of the shithole that was 2010 and new realities that broke my heart and kicked me in the stomach.

I should not have gotten the gigs I got.

I should not have had to mourn Christmas instead of celebrate it.

I should not have gotten the car loan.

I should not have worked 63 days in a row.

And ultimately, it should have been a terrible year. But if I've relearned anything, it's that life is not fair, and what you can hope for is that sometimes it's unfair in your favor. Despite the crap jobs, the crap hours, the moments when I felt wasted, failing, persecuted, the moments when I was helped, loved, trusted, and successful tipped the balance.

In every moment, in all our time, we get to choose what the balance is. What side is weighted already. What we're weighing against. (I know, the metaphor's a little overextended.) Science says that humans remember bad experiences better than good. Science is probably right. Science also says that memory is suggestible. So here's my challenge to you and me and the flying spaghetti monster: choose the good stuff. Life can suck. So cheat, and weight the side of good.

It is a new year, and I'm going to celebrate it with cheese and pals and love and high heels. Goodbye, 2011, and don't let the door hit you on the ass on the way out.

Disturbance

2010-05-28T08:07:00.000-07:00

I have an opinion on this, and it scares me.

I am 22 years old, and I have an opinion on what the definition of knitted lace is.

Is anyone else troubled by that? Cos I think I just knit-geeked too much for even me.

I consider it a philosophical discussion. Within which there is much gray area. Which could divide the closest of friends. Which could rip up the knitting world. And it's lace.

This is like the discussion of the line between theater and performance art.

Long Time, No See

2010-02-05T13:28:00.000-08:00

Okay, okay, I admit it: I'm not much of a blogger. I feel guilty when I don't post for weeks at a time, and I usually say it's because I'm swamped, but even when I'm not--well, I suppose it's just not a priority. So long to sweeping the Bloggies, I suppose.

I have been knitting like crazy, although you know me and photographing my work. I don't think I've updated Ravelry in months, and honestly the whole online presence thing isn't a big deal to me. I'm not exactly a Luddite, but being myself in real life and then putting in all the work to be myself online seems little ridiculous.

Also, see: writer. Observation is much more my thing than participation in the wide wide world of forums. It's a good thing I came of age in the Era of Cool Nerds because otherwise, I'd've been the loneliest little fan around.

I have a picture or two for you, some of cookies (who doesn't like cookies!) and also of a wire sculpture I did for a someone's birthday.

Let's see, shall we?

Here we have The Little Cellist, based on the wire sculptures of Calder (who also did the neat0 balancing sculptural pieces my mother once memorably dragged me away from the La Brea Tarpits to see in fifth grade).

He's a sweet little dude, although I wouldn't recommend four straight hours of amateur wirework for beautifying fingertips. Ouch.

Also, I knit up a little pair of mitts out of a skein of unlabeled Mango Moon--I'm not sure the type, but it's cotton with some stretchy green nylony stuff. Very pretty, not warm, so I'm bouncing them off to Etsy.

Look! They're my hands!

In other news, I can't get Flash to work on little Igor in a youtube context, so I've taken to embedding the videos I want to watch on a new blog, Sarah Watches YouTube. There's going to be a lot of musical theater stuff, as it's research for a class, but maybe it'll amuse and abuse and scar you for life. The world is full of possibilities.

2010-01-03T23:36:00.000-08:00

2009-12-16T11:34:00.000-08:00

2009-12-16T11:29:00.000-08:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O52pmTrkUPc

2009-12-16T08:56:00.001-08:00

Autumn

2009-10-25T17:48:00.001-07:00

Morning.

Day.

Evening.

Soup.

Funfetti cake.

Sickieface McGee

2009-10-01T12:15:00.000-07:00

So I love living and working in schools. (Seriously. I live with 849 people, go to school with 1500 people, and then work at a school with 1000 people. There is no escaping the weirdest freaking germs that ever existed and mutated.) I've had a cough for several days, and sore throats, seemingly headed towards SWINE FLU. Instead, my vertigo flared up.

So yes, it is the best fun running from rehearsal to go throw up in the fifth floor bathroom, then spend two days in bed. I've missed two of my favorite classes, and hanging out with out-of-town friends, and my head hurts and my throat is sore and I'm behind on making new scripts and contacting people and generally getting my life together. Plus I need to head uptown to pick up my paycheck. But anyway.

The upside is that I got to read an excellent book (The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood--I'm on an Atwood kick) and got a little knitting done.

You know what staves off the worst of the chills? Wooly socks. See?

I also started some Christmas knitting (for a MYSTERIOUS recipient, because I have no idea who, if any of my family, reads this). Pomatomuses, in Lana Grossa Meilenwiet Fun & Stripes, colorway 640. I'm calling them Big Bird Goes Swimming.

And worked a bit on the Medallion.

In other news, I got a belated birthday present on Monday, from my dear dear sister.

She's nuts. It's four skeins of Handmaiden Sea Silk, in Moss, Masala, Stardust, and Pewter. The colors. They glow. I don't know what to do with them yet, but for now they're glowing on top of my bureau, where I can see them every day.

By the way,I went on a beading kick. Two pairs of earrings and two necklaces, all using up the chunky beads I never know what to do with. They work nicely as feature pieces, which now I'm more of a grown up sound really exciting. Although some day I do want to do a froofy piece of lots of slender silver chains and maybe lockets interspersed like little heart-shaped points of hope. Something silly like that. For kicks. But observe:

Winter is beginning to creep into our Autumn already. I closed the window today because I was just too cold with it open, although it's not quite cold enough to turn the heat on. Yesterday I woke up with icy feet despite warm sheets and a down comforter. No good, you see. I hate being cold. I spend a lot of time in big sweatshirts and shawls and sometimes I even start wearing handwarmers inside. Your fingers can start to ache, you know. Not fun for either typing or knitting (which are my two main activities).

I feel a little odd writing all these blogs that tend to either dump my brain issues on you, the unsuspecting public, or subject to a series of amateur pictures of crafts that you will likely never see. (Unless you're Hartley. Or Bonnie. Or possibly Deena. By the way, Deena, I have that red scarfy thing for you.)

On the other hand, I'd be afraid of posting my creative writing here because they could so easily be jacked and spread without credit. It's not that I want to get paid or anything (ha! I'm a funny) but it's nice to know that the work is attributed to right person.

Bad photos it is!

I'll Never Let You Go

2009-09-27T09:19:00.000-07:00

Look! Socks!

(I know Autumn is here because my feet are getting cold.)

New York, New York, New York. I love you so dearly. The food, the sights, the sounds...

This morning, the sounds included loud and enthusiastic music and cheering from an event on 61st. No one knows what it was for, but it included a rendition of "The Star-Spangled Banner" that woke up the entire dorm on what I like to refer to as Hangover Sunday, and the Jackson 5. Holla at that, mysterious group of people in raincoats.

Last week I turned 22. (Whoo!) I made fabulously delicious cupcakes (that I did not photograph) but if you make a Swiss buttercream in the next few weeks, melt 2 tablespoons of butter with 2 tablespoons cinnamon, let sit until firm, then mix with the rest of your softened butter, and before adding powdered sugar, add 1/4 cup of dark brown sugar. Yum yum yum. It would be alarmingly good on pumpkin cakes.

There has been knitting (though not a lot). The sea blue-green blob has been replaced by a deconstructed, fully blocked sweatervest:

(Apologies for the blurry pictures.)

These projects aren't on Ravelry yet, because I'm a lazybutt, but they still exist!

Newly on the needles is the Dreamcatcher Medallion Cardigan (Rav link), inspired by Chinda's version, which I had the pleasure of seeing in person this summer. I'm using Rowan Bamboo Tape, which has a bit of a different look than a tubey yarn, but it's kind of an experiment anyway.

Also, when the weather looks like this,

I'm glad I have these.

Although the Cascade sock yarn looks and drapes like cotton, it is still a toasty warm wool. Delightful.

In other knitting news, Neil's sweater got crossposted at Kitty's Neverwear. It was kind of a fluke that I clicked over to the post from Twitter, but I did and then I almost fell out of my chair when I saw it, and all the nice things Kitty said about it. I just hope it reaches its owner soon...

It's been a bit of a rough start with my last year of school; another of those years that says "Welcome back, how're you doing, now jump in the ocean and learn to swim." We had auditions for the studio season the first weekend back, and I'm now starting on my second week of rehearsals. The show isn't exactly finished yet, but that's what school is for donchaknow. Experimentation, growth, mistakes, etc. I do think that, however much of the script is finished by the time we go up, it will be my best show yet.

Hrm hrm... Next time, crafts! And paintings! Also, I still have an etsy, a Twitter (kraftylikeafox), and Ravelry (VintageTheater). Social networking is awesome!

Also, the musical moment of zen today comes from Muse, with "Starlight".

I hope they don't find you, Tacoooooma

2009-08-20T11:02:00.000-07:00

I have pictures. I have some lovely pictures of the finished green blob, the nearly-there blue-green blob, and the cat residing temporarily in my parents' house.

I'm back in Tacoma, and it's been a little odd, as visits go. I'm not knitting much, as my projects haven't been exciting. Some crochet on a mod of my Mock Herringbone (which, while I love the effect, gets tedious in laceweight), miles of stockinette in various colors of more laceweight, casting-off on The Blob--nothing that speaks to me. My stash is all in LA waiting to be shipped to New York, and I fear dipping into my mother's just because I've got knitting ennui. I'd like to take this time to work on other creative endeavors; letter-writing, playwriting, poetry, essays... I'd even like to work on some bead and wire jewelry or sculpture, but my needlenose pliars are in a box in upstate New York somewhere.

The upside of all of this is that I finally feel recharged. My burnout this year was bad, deep-running and all-encompassing, and it's nice to feel like I'll be able to start my last year of undergrad with enthusiasm and energy. I do have to talk my dean into waiving some credits for me, for a performance and writing class that I've been thinking about for awhile, but if I'm supposed to be there, it'll happen.

There are some priorities I have to get in order for this year as well. As always, it's the balance of enjoying my college years with the need for groceries and paying off various debts, and attempting to save against future needs. By May, I'll need an apartment, and maybe a car or a plane ticket. I don't know where I'll be, but everywhere costs.

Next time I'll have pictures. Stay tuned for knitting!

Pack It Up

2009-08-06T16:00:00.000-07:00

This is my packing face.

This is part of the packed up stuff.

Now, for a physical question: How does one fit two suitcases' worth of stuff into one suitcase?

Any takers?

Anyone?

Break It Down, Yo

2009-08-05T13:16:00.000-07:00

Project Breakdown Time! Because I'm leaving on Friday early in the morning and I really should be packing or cleaning or something right now. So I'm blogging. Hurray!

Self-Portrait in Objects #3 is coming soon, I promise. I'm being lazy about photos because my camera needs charging, and then you will get another little look and what the world around me looks like.

I've hardly been knitting at all lately, mostly I think because whenever I approach a major transition I tend to feel nauseous for several days surrounding key events. I'm flying to Portland in two days, therefore my stomach seems to be flipping over and over. I'm flying to New York two and half weeks after that, and I can see a long-term guck of feeling coming at me. In light of these changes, my fast-approaching senior year, and several months of self-reflection, I've been asking myself the Big Questions. What kind of person do I want to be? What kind of character do I want to be building? Where do I go after I graduate? Which people and climate do I want to be close to? If I move back to LA, will I be able to afford a car and an apartment? If I stay in New York, will I be able to stand the concrete for another winter or two or ten? What kind of artistic circle do I want to be a part of?

BIG QUESTIONS.

In the way of these things, I've also been quite social these last few days. I met some people who could be great friends at a party, I've been to the beach and a kareoke bar, I wrote smatterings about a jam at a music collective and walked on a bluff over the city. I miss my friends in Tacoma and my friends in New York and I'm starting to dread leaving. It's tough saying goodbye, and the kicker is that I do it all the time. I suppose beginnings and endings are constant, woven into each other, spit-spliced and felted and knotted, but like the ends in knitting, they're never quite as neat as you want them to be.

I'm dealing with my so long farewells by not thinking about them until the last minute. It's kind of like splitting the difference between getting a surprise punch in the stomach and getting a light smack on the head every day for several months. Long foresight has disadvantages.

But this was supposed to be a project breakdown, and I'm rambling about my early-twenties crisis. Moving on.

From left to right: ocean-colored kimono vest in lace-weight baby angora, 2x2 hat with baby cables in silk and merino, cocoa tunic in lace-weight baby alpaca, the socks that will never die, giant green blob Go Fly A Kite Shawl in lace-weight baby alpaca, Anna's stethoscope cover in Tofutsies, Mock Herringbone Wrap in orange lace-weight wool.

Notice how many of those projects are heavier than lace-weight? Two. And one is a skinny sock yarn.

But full disclosure: the hat is done. It seems a little itchy.

I'm on the edging for the shawl.

But it still looks like a blob.

And I just have to finish sewing on the snaps for the stethoscope cover.

Also, I finally finished up the Author sweater and it's stockinette road to the end of the earth. It's for Neil Gaiman. I shipped it last week. I'm totally flipping out, 'cause, well, it's freaking awesome that he'll have something I made and possibly wear it.

The real color is of course black like the gates of hell and the souls of Norwegian black metal aficionados, but the sunlight washed it out. I thought the sweater might get lonely in its box, so I made it a friend:

It's a kitty! But then I thought kitty might get lonely so I made it a companion:

On the inside, my five-year-old self is going "awwww", and my eighteen-year-old self who loved MirrorMask is going nuts, and my nineteen-year-old self who loved Stardust is squeaking with delight.

In other news, I went to Twist in Manhattan Beach, and picked up some sexy yarn:

My name is Sarah and I am addicted to Malabrigo Lace.

One last thing: my great-aunt Sally and uncle Bill celebrated their 60th (!) wedding anniversay this summer, so I made them a card. It's krafty! Like a fox.

And for your moment of zen: "Postcards From Italy" by Beirut. It's one of my summer jams.

Look! It's Woolly! And Stitched!

2009-07-17T18:20:00.000-07:00

I'll say one thing for unemployment: it sure leaves you a lot of time to knit. I've gotten more projects done this summer than I have in the last nine or ten months, not in the least because I've been the grateful beneficiary cheap yarn. Unfortunately, the yarn comes from A Mano, which closed on the 3rd. Which means I'm unemployed. Vicious cycle.

So I've been working my knitty magic with my booty of tragic origins, and here are a few of the results:

An unfinished project of Annette's, found in a basket in the back room. It had about six rows done, so I took a few hours to finish it. Call it the Lettuce Scarf.

Kidsilk Haze and an anonymous thick and thin wool. Cast on with the thick and thin, knit four rows Kidsilk, two rows t and t, and continue until you're tired of it. Cast off on the fourth Kidsilk row with the t and t. And look, it's pretty!

Next, anonymous sock yarn mitts. Good for cold hands and fall days, so...absolutely useless in LA in July. But come fall in New York, they will be keeping my hands toasty warm.

Next, I've knit about ten (no exagerration) of these 2x2 hats, in half a dozen yarns. The pattern is simple: using 16" US 9 circulars, cast on 76 stitches and purl 2, knit 2 in the round for 7". Then k2tog around until five stitches remain and pull the tail of the yarn through the remaining stitches. It's a really easy way to use up about 100 yards of worsted, and it's freaking addictive. Think of the 2x2 scarf craze the Yarn Harlot started.

I've put them up on Etsy (bottlecapknits.etsy.com!) but if they don't sell, everyone I know is getting a hat for an upcoming gift-giving occasion.

I'm still working on my authorial sweater--miles and miles and miles of black stockinette, and the chart ended up creating a slightly retarded looking kitten, but I think it will turn out well. The sleeves are almost ready to be attached to the body, and then I have the interest of raglan shaping to motivate me to finish up. It turns out I don't like knitting anything too plain; there has to be some kind of shaping or pattern or change to keep me involved. When I finally have enough disposable income to get a Bohus kit, I'm going to have to make some changes to keep it going.

Also in the works: a giant green lace blob! the same blue pair of socks for my mother! another 2x2 hat...with cables! Stay tuned for photos.

But honestly, if anyone knows of employment that doesn't mind me moving around the country for the next four weeks, I'd love to hear about it. Seriously. Like, really really.

Recipe Corner

2009-07-01T13:25:00.001-07:00

Welcome, boys and girls, men and women, non-gender identifying humans and non-human identifying people, to the recipe corner. Today, you have the privilege of being gifted the recipe for the BEST DAMN CAKE EVER.

If you you like cake, that is.

The recipe comes in five parts.

Salted Caramel Chocolate Cake

I. Cake (Modified from epicurious.com)

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups sugar
1 1/3 cups all purpose flour
2/3 cup good unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup strong fresh-brewed coffee
3/4 cup buttermilk
6 tablespoons butter
2 large eggs, beaten to blend
4 oz good bittersweet chocolate, melted and cooled
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 325 F and butter and flour two 8- or 9-inch cake pans. Whisk sugar, flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt together in a large bowl. Set aside. In a separate bowl, melt butter in coffee and cool. Mix with buttermilk, eggs, chocolate, and vanilla. Add to dry ingredients, and mix until there are no lumps or dry spots left in batter. Divide batter into cake pans. Bake at 325 F for about 20 minutes in the middle of the oven, until a sharp knife or toothpick inserted into center of cake comes out clean. Turn out cakes on a cooling rack.

II. Buttercream

Ingredients:
5 tablespoons salted butter, softened
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla

In a medium sized bowl with an electric mixer or wooden spoon and strong arm, beat ingredients until fluffy. Set aside. (Easy peasy, right?)

III. Salted Caramel

Ingredients:
1/2 cup sugar
4 tablespoons salted butter
1/3 cup heavy cream at room temperature

Melt sugar in a medium sized saucepan over medium-high heat, whisking constantly, until it achieves a medium-brown color. (You can cook it darker if you wish, but be careful not to let it burn. Burned caramel cannot be salvaged.) Add butter all at once, continuing to stir. Remove from heat and whisk in cream. Let cool.
IV. Dark Chocolate Ganache

Ingredients:
5 oz. semisweet chocolate
3 oz. bittersweet chocolate
1 tbsp. heavy cream
2 tbsp. butter

Melt chocolates, cream, and butter together in microwave on high in 30-second bursts, stirring after each burst, until melted together and glossy. Let cool, but not harden.
V. Layering

Divide buttercream into four parts, one part slightly larger than the others. Divide caramel in four equal parts. Using a sharp, serrated knife, cut each cooled cake into two equal layers. Place bottom of the first cake on your decorating surface (in my case, the serving plate). Spread with one of the three smaller butter cream portions. Drizzle one portion of the cooled caramel over the buttercream. Repeat with following three layers; cake, then buttercream, then caramel. On last layer, drizzle caramel on the buttercream in an aesthetically pleasing design, then drizzle ganache in a complementary pleasing design over the caramel. Serve immediately, or store in fridge for several hours before serving to set ganache and layers. Will serve between one and twelve people.

If
you have extra caramel, warm it in the microwave, stir in a good helping of salted, shelled peanuts, and eat with apple slices. If you have extra ganache, use as chocolate sauce. It will store quite well in an airtight container in the fridge. If you have extra buttercream, eat with a spoon, scoop up with graham crackers, or hand it to the nearest child, teenager, or staving college student.

Just look at how delicious that is.

Self Portrait in Objects #2

2009-06-24T12:40:00.001-07:00

I'm always amazed at the way I live my life. Most days I am surprised when I wake up and find that I am still myself (and said as much on Twitter not long ago). The gift of time that I receive every summer brings my thoughts to circle the same places: what does it mean to be a person, what does it mean to live, how does creation and consumption affect who and what you are; the kinds of questions that are easy to laugh at, easy to dismiss, but difficult to answer. The need to "do" during the arc of the school year allows me to discard those questions until garbage day, when it's all built up so far that words I didn't know I had spill out. Well, it's time to take out the trash (but I'll be doing it in the comfort of my head, thank you, and letting it out in the form of creative writing, which will only refer obliquely to my experiences).

In the spirit of self-examination, I bring you Self Portrait in Objects #2, Perfume.

Name: Perfume

Smells Like: citrus, patchouli, sandalwood, rose absolute, Nag Champa incense (you know, the kind that comes in the blue and red box sold at a hippie festivals and on NYC street corners).

Created By: Alicia of Anabella and Company, a master soapmaker and scent expert. She has a small wooden sheddio in her backyard, and last summer she brought me out of a hot and sticky August to her little lab of scent, oil, shea butter, and bunnies for a "scent interview". She handed me bottle after bottle of scent, which I placed in three categories, and then worked her wondrous sorcery to make me a perfume that smelled like me. I've never gone in for commercial scents much, kept mostly to Bath and Bodyworks citrusy body sprays, but having perfume feels sophistocated and grown-up.

Also: I was pleasantly surprised to find that I really do like the scents I said I liked. Lavender, patchouli, and lime are things I thought I liked, but was always secretly concerned that I like the ideas and associations behind them. Patchouli being exotic and womanly, lavender being thoughtful and clean, lime as fresh and relaxed--all impressions of who I wanted to be and be seen as, but never quite certain of. (Isn't that true of most people? We know what we want to portray, but aren't sure that we're successful at it. Famous people employ whole teams to maintain image; those of us who have only ourselves will only know how we look from the inside. But that's the most important perspective anyway. As my mommy says, the only person you have to live with for the rest of your life is you.)

Self Portrait in Objects #1

2009-06-05T15:01:00.000-07:00

The other night, I was lying in bed trying to go to sleep and thinking about my life. After many minutes of a thought process influenced largely by half-remembered dreams and the cup of strong black tea I'd had just before brushing my teeth, I thought about the way people describe themselves. From those demented musings comes my first (and possibly only) feature: the Self-Portrait in Objects series. Every so often I will take a photo of an object I own and post it. The objects could be old, new, foodstuffs, underwear, jewelry, ballpoint pens, whatever I want. Over time, I'm hoping the series will become a visual personality map.

The Rules:
1. It must be something I own.
2. It cannot be alive.

Today is number one.

Name: Gray Bear
Age: Approximately 18.
Significance: He was gift from my paternal grandparents when I was about three. He is a Gund bear, a teddy of the highest caliber, and has never betrayed me for another love. I refused to bring him to college for two years, because I feared the dorms would burn down and I would lose him forever. Last fall, I realized that there was just as much of chance of my parents' house going up in flames, so I brought him with me to New York as part of the Taking Care of Sarah initiative.

Stuff and Stuff

2009-05-30T16:14:00.001-07:00

Hey, I'm on Twitter now! Check me out on Twitter! I'm KraftyLikeAFox! I know, I know, thank you Captain Obvious, right?

Since we last spoke, I managed to pass all my finals, load in and out a major dance production, and flee NYC with the shreds of my sanity. Over the past three weeks, I've been stress detoxing and job-hunting in oppositeland--LA. I went from cold and rainy to hot and sunny, and it's been exactly what I need.

There's not a lot of time for thoughtfulness and self-reflection in the school year. The most time I had to think was generally on the subway to and from work, a ride which is only about twenty minutes long. Of course, as soon as a deeper train of thought started to form and chug along, it was time to powerwalk the six blocks from the subway to the office, swipe in, and start going.

There are pros and cons to not being able to think much. On the one hand, little time for reflection means little time for regret. On the other hand, it means that any regrets, disappointments, and mistakes that can't be dealt with immediately are saved for later. I've had a couple of long conversations with a friend about patterns my thoughts are making these days. Mostly, I want to think about what I want from my life before I wind up running right through it. I want to refresh my focus, reevaluate my goals, and wow, do I sound like I'm in a mid-career crisis or what.

In any case, along with thinking, I've finally had a chance to do some serious knitting. Along with some stuff I've done in-store (holla back, A Mano!), I've managed to get a few sweaters going.

First, one of the only sweaters I've knit from a pattern, Wrenna (Rav link) from French Girl Knits by Kristeen Griffin-Grimes. It was an easy, pretty pattern, but I have to get used to the lines. It's a lot bulkier (surprise surprise) than most of the sweaters and sweatshirts I wear, but it will be nice for spring and summer evenings out. I particularly love the big blue button. It took about a skein and a half of Brown Sheep Burly Spun.

Next, a yoked cardigan of my own design out of Jo Sharp Silk Road. I love this yarn, and now I understand why Brooklyn Tweed is so obsessed with tweeds. The rustic feel, the little slubby colors, the kind of thick and thing handspun texture--mmm. Yay tweed.

Usually, when I design my own sweaters, I take a lot of notes, but in this case, I just jumped right in. It's kind of a tossup as to how it will turn out, but hopefully well enough that I can wear it as another go-to sweater. I need more of those.

And last but certainly not least, a laceweight sweater I'm going to call Waved. It's the same sort of concept as the lavender cardigan, work up and down from horizontal strip of cable, but this is going to hit right below the bust and the sleeves are simply going to be criss-crossed kimono-style stockinette. I love the color and the texture, and I think the effect will be kind of tropical ocean-y. Of course, right now it looks like sea-barf, but that's why they invented blocking, isn't it?

In other news, I'm catching up on all the TV I missed. Dollhouse, Bones, Castle... I've got to get started on Mad Men, or I'll never be up to date. See you soon, chickadees!

Check and Balance

2009-04-30T10:48:00.000-07:00

I'm on my 14th set of final exams. I've spent four weeks (or more) a year for seven years recalling everything I've learned over six months and applying much of it in final papers and projects, organzing my days into hourly chunks broken up fifteen minute breaks (an hour for meals). Besides all I'm supposed to have retained since September 2002 (my freshman year of high school), I like to think I've learned quite a bit more about studying.

For example, the present. Today is my first reading day. I woke up at 8:30, immediately got on the computer, and began to work on an annotated bibliography, lost focus long enough to schedule out every day until May 11 when I fly out to California for the summer, and took two breaks: one for my brain and one for lunch. I came back to the little white laptop with intention of writing a paper for my sociology class. Instead, I looked at back issues of The Twist Collective. Now I'm here, talking to you.

Lesson: I am not ready to begin working again. My brain needs more of a break.

Question: Why? I have several theories. 1) I've lost much of my endurance for mental work because of the higher stress level from the past few...months. 2) I'm still hungry and must go eat a cinnamon roll. 3) I need a nap.

Gold star for whoever gets the right answer. I'm off to transcribe family legends and place them in a historical immigrant context.

While you're thinking, watch Amanda Palmer sing "Creep" on ukulele in a bar. The woman who sings along with her at 3:45 looks like she just fell in love. And honestly, in that situation, who wouldn't?

And then go listen to The Weepies' "Orbiting",(ignore the odd anime tribute thing) followed by The Sounds' "Ego" (with the synth that sounds like it's from "Labyrinth") and "Kids" by MGMT (when I grow up I want to be a dancing weatherman). Actually, just go to Pandora and create a Tegan and Sara station, then listen to what comes up.

Grawk

2009-04-13T16:38:00.001-07:00

I spent most of my day today wandering around the apartment grawking like a baby pterodactyl. This was to avoid the paper I have to turn in tomorrow, which is worth a good portion of my Medieval Theology Texts grade (a class which makes even the most ordinary Easter Vigil and Mass more interesting, as the layers of meaning and tradition reveal themselves).

Then I ended up on foodgawker via facebook.

Now all I want is a July evening on my parents' deck with grilled salmon, asparagus, and green salad with avocado and tomato. Doesn't that sound like the perfect summer meal?

Yeah.

O, summer, when will you come back to me?

Curve

2009-04-13T09:24:00.000-07:00

Today I learned two things:

1. Massage chairs are distracting.
2. Trust the instincts developed by years of hippie-themed living.

(Lessons brought to you by the letter "D", for dentist.)

I went to the dentist this morning (Happy Easter Monday! Jesus is back from hell and life's a party!) to figure out the jaw problems I've been having for a year or so. What I found out is that I have a severe, advanced case of TMJ, thankfully no permanent or anatomical damage, and treatment is fairly simple. The look of surprise and confusion on the DDS's face when I described the treatment plan my old dentist had given me was that a) it was wrong, and b) could've really fucked with my stomach. Said treatment involved way too ibuprofin.

Sigh. They teach you in childhood to trust your medical professionals, but honestly... People screw up a lot.

So. New Dentist looks surprised, I say always took 33% of the recommended amount, and relief joins surprise on his face. He asks me how old I am. I tell him. Concern, relief, and surprise are now having a party, and every expression's invited! Meanwhile, the massage exam chair (I didn't know they existed) and the humming personal flatscreen TV (didn't know they could have those in dental exam rooms) are making it a little hard to think. Long story short, a couple x-rays and a price quote for a nightguard later, I scoot out of the building and let the morning rumble of cars and tourists add to the comfort of a real diagnosis and treatment plan, and the overall feeling that I will be just fine.

I was worried, I'll admit it. I'm still young enough that the idea of my body not working the way it's supposed to, possibly for good, is frightening. It took eons to get people working this well, and it seems illogical for bodies to break, to shut down, to muck up, to hurt itself because of something small. For me, it was clenching and grinding my teeth in my sleep. Small actions, over time, building into a big problem. One side of me is scared to death of what other small actions will lead to destruction. The other side finds the idea tinted with hope. Small actions, over time, leading to change. Leading to something new, big, better than now. Obama, let's say. Or Earth Hour. Meditate on that for a while.

On to knitting. I've knit up a couple of things I'm posting on etsy--same base pattern, both in Mmmmalabrigo lace (the Haggen Das Reserve of lace knitting--a delicious treat, but not as unattainable as creme brulee from a pastry chef in Paris).

This one is already up.

This one will be up when my adopted computer decides to let drop-down menus work again.

And I think my photography is getting better. Practice, practice, practice, as they say. I miss knitting more complex things, but I pulled out some Knit Picks Alpaca Cloud from my stash and I'm starting the Go Fly A Kite shawl, a free pattern from holli. I'm not even through the first chart repeat yet, so the thing is just a tiny blob of green yarn, but I'll post pictures when it gets further along.

In other news, etsy! Twitter! Follow my friend on her new blog, Hart of Snarkness!

Planet Earth: The Lifecycle

2009-04-05T16:10:00.001-07:00

All things change and all things stay the same. It is the cycle of life to have beginnings, and endings... The old and new, the dead and alive... It is what it means to be alive.

That was your moment of zen.

A few weeks ago, my hard drive committed suicide. I lost everything on it: writing, knitting patterns, photos, notes, story ideas, and essays I was proud of. Gone. Like some horrible magic trick. I am now writing on a loaner, an old machine my friend over at Pointing West gave me to use until I can install the drive another friend gave me.

I have no knitting to show you yet, although I finally finished the socks for my mother I started in January, and I have a couple of pieces I'm trying to sell that are rather pretty. But today was the first sunny, springy day I could appreciate, and I wanted to be in it without a camera. I went through the park on the way to the yarn store, and there are now daffodils and bluebells blooming in addition to the crocuses and snowdrops that bloomed last week. It has been a long, long winter, and I am so happy to be in April and spring.

I also baked bread! and made black beans, and tonight I'm going to make empanadas. Delicious things abound today.

Eesh, really?

2009-02-19T11:06:00.000-08:00

Welcome to my life, where all hell breaks loose on a regular basis.

Which is why I haven't posted in almost a month.

Although I have knitting photos. And knitting. For the first time in like, ever.

But alas, it will have to wait until midterms are over. Like I said, all hell=breaking loose almost all the time. For example, heartcracks and designing and scholarship applications and sickness and work and people.

Happy Obama Day!

2009-01-20T09:49:00.000-08:00

For the first time in eight years, I can say that I am proud of our president.

"My fellow citizens:
I stand here today humbled by the task before us, grateful for the trust you have bestowed, mindful of the sacrifices borne by our ancestors. I thank President Bush for his service to our nation, as well as the generosity and cooperation he has shown throughout this transition.
Forty-four Americans have now taken the presidential oath. The words have been spoken during rising tides of prosperity and the still waters of peace. Yet, every so often the oath is taken amidst gathering clouds and raging storms. At these moments, America has carried on not simply because of the skill or vision of those in high office, but because We the People have remained faithful to the ideals of our forbearers, and true to our founding documents.

So it has been. So it must be with this generation of Americans.

That we are in the midst of crisis is now well understood. Our nation is at war, against a far-reaching network of violence and hatred. Our economy is badly weakened, a consequence of greed and irresponsibility on the part of some, but also our collective failure to make hard choices and prepare the nation for a new age. Homes have been lost; jobs shed; businesses shuttered. Our health care is too costly; our schools fail too many; and each day brings further evidence that the ways we use energy strengthen our adversaries and threaten our planet.
These are the indicators of crisis, subject to data and statistics. Less measurable but no less profound is a sapping of confidence across our land - a nagging fear that America's decline is inevitable, and that the next generation must lower its sights.

Today I say to you that the challenges we face are real. They are serious and they are many. They will not be met easily or in a short span of time. But know this, America - they will be met.

On this day, we gather because we have chosen hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord.

On this day, we come to proclaim an end to the petty grievances and false promises, the recriminations and worn out dogmas, that for far too long have strangled our politics.
We remain a young nation, but in the words of Scripture, the time has come to set aside childish things. The time has come to reaffirm our enduring spirit; to choose our better history; to carry forward that precious gift, that noble idea, passed on from generation to generation: the God-given promise that all are equal, all are free, and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness.

In reaffirming the greatness of our nation, we understand that greatness is never a given. It must be earned. Our journey has never been one of short-cuts or settling for less. It has not been the path for the faint-hearted - for those who prefer leisure over work, or seek only the pleasures of riches and fame. Rather, it has been the risk-takers, the doers, the makers of things - some celebrated but more often men and women obscure in their labor, who have carried us up the long, rugged path towards prosperity and freedom.

For us, they packed up their few worldly possessions and traveled across oceans in search of a new life.

For us, they toiled in sweatshops and settled the West; endured the lash of the whip and plowed the hard earth.

For us, they fought and died, in places like Concord and Gettysburg; Normandy and Khe Sahn.
Time and again these men and women struggled and sacrificed and worked till their hands were raw so that we might live a better life. They saw America as bigger than the sum of our individual ambitions; greater than all the differences of birth or wealth or faction.

This is the journey we continue today. We remain the most prosperous, powerful nation on Earth. Our workers are no less productive than when this crisis began. Our minds are no less inventive, our goods and services no less needed than they were last week or last month or last year. Our capacity remains undiminished. But our time of standing pat, of protecting narrow interests and putting off unpleasant decisions - that time has surely passed. Starting today, we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin again the work of remaking America.

For everywhere we look, there is work to be done. The state of the economy calls for action, bold and swift, and we will act - not only to create new jobs, but to lay a new foundation for growth. We will build the roads and bridges, the electric grids and digital lines that feed our commerce and bind us together. We will restore science to its rightful place, and wield technology's wonders to raise health care's quality and lower its cost. We will harness the sun and the winds and the soil to fuel our cars and run our factories. And we will transform our schools and colleges and universities to meet the demands of a new age. All this we can do. And all this we will do.

Now, there are some who question the scale of our ambitions - who suggest that our system cannot tolerate too many big plans. Their memories are short. For they have forgotten what this country has already done; what free men and women can achieve when imagination is joined to common purpose, and necessity to courage.

What the cynics fail to understand is that the ground has shifted beneath them - that the stale political arguments that have consumed us for so long no longer apply. The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too small, but whether it works - whether it helps families find jobs at a decent wage, care they can afford, a retirement that is dignified. Where the answer is yes, we intend to move forward. Where the answer is no, programs will end. And those of us who manage the public's dollars will be held to account - to spend wisely, reform bad habits, and do our business in the light of day - because only then can we restore the vital trust between a people and their government.

Nor is the question before us whether the market is a force for good or ill. Its power to generate wealth and expand freedom is unmatched, but this crisis has reminded us that without a watchful eye, the market can spin out of control - and that a nation cannot prosper long when it favors only the prosperous. The success of our economy has always depended not just on the size of our Gross Domestic Product, but on the reach of our prosperity; on our ability to extend opportunity to every willing heart - not out of charity, but because it is the surest route to our common good.

As for our common defense, we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals. Our Founding Fathers, faced with perils we can scarcely imagine, drafted a charter to assure the rule of law and the rights of man, a charter expanded by the blood of generations. Those ideals still light the world, and we will not give them up for expedience's sake. And so to all other peoples and governments who are watching today, from the grandest capitals to the small village where my father was born: know that America is a friend of each nation and every man, woman, and child who seeks a future of peace and dignity, and that we are ready to lead once more.

Recall that earlier generations faced down fascism and communism not just with missiles and tanks, but with sturdy alliances and enduring convictions. They understood that our power alone cannot protect us, nor does it entitle us to do as we please. Instead, they knew that our power grows through its prudent use; our security emanates from the justness of our cause, the force of our example, the tempering qualities of humility and restraint.

We are the keepers of this legacy. Guided by these principles once more, we can meet those new threats that demand even greater effort - even greater cooperation and understanding between nations. We will begin to responsibly leave Iraq to its people, and forge a hard-earned peace in Afghanistan. With old friends and former foes, we will work tirelessly to lessen the nuclear threat, and roll back the specter of a warming planet. We will not apologize for our way of life, nor will we waver in its defense, and for those who seek to advance their aims by inducing terror and slaughtering innocents, we say to you now that our spirit is stronger and cannot be broken; you cannot outlast us, and we will defeat you.

For we know that our patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness. We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus - and non-believers. We are shaped by every language and culture, drawn from every end of this Earth; and because we have tasted the bitter swill of civil war and segregation, and emerged from that dark chapter stronger and more united, we cannot help but believe that the old hatreds shall someday pass; that the lines of tribe shall soon dissolve; that as the world grows smaller, our common humanity shall reveal itself; and that America must play its role in ushering in a new era of peace.

To the Muslim world, we seek a new way forward, based on mutual interest and mutual respect. To those leaders around the globe who seek to sow conflict, or blame their society's ills on the West - know that your people will judge you on what you can build, not what you destroy. To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history; but that we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist.

To the people of poor nations, we pledge to work alongside you to make your farms flourish and let clean waters flow; to nourish starved bodies and feed hungry minds. And to those nations like ours that enjoy relative plenty, we say we can no longer afford indifference to suffering outside our borders; nor can we consume the world's resources without regard to effect. For the world has changed, and we must change with it.

As we consider the road that unfolds before us, we remember with humble gratitude those brave Americans who, at this very hour, patrol far-off deserts and distant mountains. They have something to tell us today, just as the fallen heroes who lie in Arlington whisper through the ages. We honor them not only because they are guardians of our liberty, but because they embody the spirit of service; a willingness to find meaning in something greater than themselves. And yet, at this moment - a moment that will define a generation - it is precisely this spirit that must inhabit us all.

For as much as government can do and must do, it is ultimately the faith and determination of the American people upon which this nation relies. It is the kindness to take in a stranger when the levees break, the selflessness of workers who would rather cut their hours than see a friend lose their job which sees us through our darkest hours. It is the firefighter's courage to storm a stairway filled with smoke, but also a parent's willingness to nurture a child, that finally decides our fate.

Our challenges may be new. The instruments with which we meet them may be new. But those values upon which our success depends - hard work and honesty, courage and fair play, tolerance and curiosity, loyalty and patriotism - these things are old. These things are true. They have been the quiet force of progress throughout our history. What is demanded then is a return to these truths. What is required of us now is a new era of responsibility - a recognition, on the part of every American, that we have duties to ourselves, our nation, and the world, duties that we do not grudgingly accept but rather seize gladly, firm in the knowledge that there is nothing so satisfying to the spirit, so defining of our character, than giving our all to a difficult task.

This is the price and the promise of citizenship.

This is the source of our confidence - the knowledge that God calls on us to shape an uncertain destiny.

This is the meaning of our liberty and our creed - why men and women and children of every race and every faith can join in celebration across this magnificent mall, and why a man whose father less than sixty years ago might not have been served at a local restaurant can now stand before you to take a most sacred oath.

So let us mark this day with remembrance, of who we are and how far we have traveled. In the year of America's birth, in the coldest of months, a small band of patriots huddled by dying campfires on the shores of an icy river. The capital was abandoned. The enemy was advancing. The snow was stained with blood. At a moment when the outcome of our revolution was most in doubt, the father of our nation ordered these words be read to the people:
"Let it be told to the future world...that in the depth of winter, when nothing but hope and virtue could survive...that the city and the country, alarmed at one common danger, came forth to meet [it]."

America. In the face of our common dangers, in this winter of our hardship, let us remember these timeless words. With hope and virtue, let us brave once more the icy currents, and endure what storms may come. Let it be said by our children's children that when we were tested we refused to let this journey end, that we did not turn back nor did we falter; and with eyes fixed on the horizon and God's grace upon us, we carried forth that great gift of freedom and delivered it safely to future generations."

President Barack Obama

Are YOU Popular?

2009-01-05T14:45:00.001-08:00

I WANT

2008-12-11T21:19:00.000-08:00

What children say before sentances, you know? See a cookie "I WANT", see a toy "I WANT", see a squirrel "I WANT" (or maybe that last one's just me).

What I want and can't have right now:

knitting time for me
to bake sugar cookies with cranberry-lime buttercream and sprinkles
snow
a cuddle-buddy
a peppermint mocha with extra whipped cream
a hug from my mama

What I can have right now:

knitting time for commissions and Christmas
toast
torrential rains
a stuffed rabbit, unnamed, and sock monkey named Gertrude
tea
a facebook message

I know, I know. Angst angst angst. I'm supposed to be beyond this, but dammit, it's finals weekend and I am tired and homesick and I just want to knit some freaking lace for me.

Maybe tomorrow I will go get that mocha and I will get a hug from my lovely roommate, but as of now, I just want to get on a plane and go home to people who know me and love me all the way down. The last few days before breaks just about kill me every time.

There. I'm done.

Not/Cool

2008-12-06T06:53:00.001-08:00

Dear Body,

Please, the next time you decide I should wake up at 8:30 AM and not be able to go back to sleep, could you pick a day when I hadn't been out until 3:30 the night before?

Now I am sleepy and grumpy and that sucks.

Love,
Sarah

Urrrg...Brains...

2008-12-05T14:16:00.001-08:00

Is how I feel today. Zombify me, Captain!

Woke up today with an intense and PERFECTLY LEGAL (still a novelty, donchaknow) hangover--showered, made it to class, turned in a paper I had written prior to my youthful excesses, and when I came home found this:

(The following is a dramatization of actual events. I was too impatient to wait until I got back to my camera to open the package, and honestly, when you live on the 17th floor and there are eight brightly lit buttons to go before you, you need a little entertainment.)

A package! (Huzzah!)

And inside in pretty paper...

A box with a kitty! And inside the box with the kitty...

More pretty paper! And inside the pretty paper...

A bottle opener! And with the bottle opener...

Earrings!

I bought the bottle opener from Sandra, who has both a lovely blog and a charming Etsy store. She was friendly, fast, and included the little earrings as a giftie. All my knit-theme accessories and vintage-look jewelry are coming from her now. Celebrate the small business, my friends. Celebrate it.

In other news, I'm still knitting El Commission Mysterioso. No reveal on that one; there's probably some legal thing involved and in any case, it doesn't feel right. I'm getting along with my Christmas knits a little too--see?

Two at a time socks in Smooshy. Don't remember the color name, and as the Canadians say, can't be arsed to walk the twenty feet to check. Sue me; it's the second to last Friday I'll have in this city until 2009. (Did that sentance just scare you? It scared me. I got chills--2009. That seems like a year of uncertainty and change. But YES WE CAN make that change for the better and make this world feel a little less awful.)

Soon I get to start knitting with the new Malabrigo sock yarn. As anyone who has glimpsed Malabrigo knows about it's legendary softness, I'll like to say right now that the sock yarn does not disappoint. Early reports say it doesn't pill like the rest of the Malabrigo line does, and wears beautifully. We'll find out soon!

This is a fairly quick hit (may I again mention hangover and finals?) but your moment of zen:

Represent, yo.

Well, Goodness Gracious I've Been Tagged

2008-11-21T08:58:00.000-08:00

Lene gave me the distinct honor of my first blog tag: the ubiquitous 7 Things meme. It feels like a good jumpstart to my poor, neglected blog.

The rules:

Post the rules on your blog Write 7 random things about yourself Tag 7 people at the end of the post Pass on the tag

1. Every three to four months or so, I start nesting. I find myself with the urge to settle down, have a baby, and be a good housewife for the next twenty years of my life. I settle these urges by wearing aprons around the house and baking a lot. My friends and I believe this is connected to a former life in which I was a perfect housewife, or perhaps that I have simply been born in the wrong generation.

2. I was nearly 17 when I had my first kiss, and solidly beat the young man who kissed me in a pillow fight about a year afterward.

3. I like to eat French fries with mayonnaise, which completely disgusts my mother.

4. I also like to eat hot caramelized apples with sour cream, which completely disgusts my roommate.

5. As a child, I was convinced I was going to be a famous Oscar-winning actress (a dream crushed now by an intense fear of acting and a definition of success that does not include fame) and practiced my red-carpet interviews in the bathroom mirror, as both myself and the interviewer. Later, my sister Therese revealed that she would often listen at the door to my conversations and laugh.

6. I was a tumbler for six years, ages 5 to 11. I never learned to do a backhandspring.

7. I did, however, learn to ride a unicycle.

Tag, you're it: Ciara, and six others who have not done it yet.

In knitting news, I did finish my friend's Clapotis, and it turned out quite nicely:

I am a handy model, no? : )

My friend wears it with a bomber jacket, which looks so very New York and chic.

This morning, about five minute before my Crusades class, I had a tiny panic attack about Christmas, for you see, although I've been doing my knitting, it's going slowly and I don't really have things for everyone, or even yarn for things for everyone. I have some items that don't fit personality or climate, and I'm just not sure what I'm going to do. Perhaps wrap the yarn and sketch whatever it is I'm going to make?

Yeesh.

Any helpful thoughts? I have two sisters and my mother covered, but my father needs more than one pair of socks and my last sister lives in Hotland, USA, so she has no need for the ideas I've been having.

No matter. Just four days until I get to go see family in New Hampshire and there I will do nothing but play and read and knit my heart out. Go holidays.

And before I sign off completely, your musical moment of zen:

The Internets is blowing up!

2008-11-05T06:54:00.001-08:00

We did it.

We won.

HAPPY OBAMA DAY!

Kiss the end of time...

2008-10-30T21:20:00.000-07:00

There comes a point where placeholder blog posts become the only blog posts and then the blog itself dies a sad, sad death.

My way to avoid was to not post at all! Yay! I have good reason, though. This month saw my show open (tonight, as it happens), midterms, and several quite good knitting commissions. That said, I have hardly knit on my own projects at all, and have nothing to show for my long silence. I do have plans--Christmas knitting must happen soon, and I'm so excited! I got some lovely sock yarn for my papa, and plans for colorwork mittens for my mama, and who knows what for my sisters.

Plays are complicated; art is complicated. You spend months and months working towards a goal, a beautiful child of your mind and heart and the minds and hearts of other people, and between the tremendous amount of trust you must put into the piece and the wildly exicitng parts of the puzzle others put into it there comes on opening night a feeling like Christmas. Christmas when you were a child and still truly believed in Santa Claus and the wrapping paper hid the possibility of a pony, really maybe this year.

After the show, there's a let down. Isolation. Loneliness, because your baby was here and then it's gone and you are the only one who feels it.

This song made me feel the loneliness less.

Ha

2008-10-09T05:39:00.000-07:00

Now you all know what I do on the internets when I'm not doing the blogging I've been planning on: I read webcomics and other people's blogs. It's sure interesting!

My life should be calming down for at least a couple weeks after today; my lab hours will be over for this show and my show will not have sped up yet. I'm hoping to catch up on the homework I haven't been doing and work on some knitting commissions this weekend, maybe even see some friends. : ) Honestly, if I didn't live in the same building as many of them, I would never have a social life.

I have been doing some knitting: a Clapotis for a friend in Malabrigo Lace and Berroco Lumina, and test patterns and charts for a Christmas stocking commission. I'm pleasantly surprised about the latter; it's been a while since I knit anything besides swatched in acrylic, and the Plymouth Encore is 75% acrylic 25% wool. It's actually fine to knit with. It feels a little staticy, but acts similiarly to Cascade 220.

Today's moment of zen: a webcomic from xkcd. Go to the bottom and look there.

http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/depth.png

My Wrench Is My Best Friend

2008-10-03T06:06:00.000-07:00

Another baby post, guys, sorry.

It's been hugely busy here (I forgot what it meant to not have a life AND have my non-life be entirely structured). Class, homework, electrics calls, rehearsal, work, repeat in various combinations and then repeat at random. And sleep--I've found that I can't do the non-sleep non-eat thing that I used to. It just makes me crazy and unable to function.

THE MORAL OF THE STORY: Sleeping and eating are both necessary and fun.

I'm also taking a couple knitting commissions for Christmas stockings, and I really hope I'm not underestimating the time it's going to take to complete them (as I am charging for labor by the hour). It would be such a relief and boon to have a little extra cash flow, though.

My own knitting is considerably slowed down; I finished the second pair of pinky-purple mitts, and I'm on repeat 8 of Muir. I may be starting a new pair of socks (as well as ripping the leftovers from the Physics socks) and I may be starting a hat.

Also, never date. It's too complicated. (Is that properly college and huffy?)

Your Musical Moment of Zen...

2008-09-30T14:47:00.000-07:00

Mika's "Love Today". Note the dancers, colors, and the amazing Mika himself. Love child of Freddie Mercury and David Bowie, I swear to glitter rock.

It's Nearly October

2008-09-29T14:23:00.001-07:00

and also almost payday! Huzzah! Considering I have a $10 bill and some change to my name, this is a welcome event (although I'm pleased to say I have a at least a week's worth of balanced meals left).

And Lene (excellent blog--highly recommended) asked about an Equus review. What can I say? That it was magical, exhilarating, beautiful, lonely, inspiring, mystical, mysterious, wholly revealed, just, unfair, spectacle, subtle? All of them and none at the same time, but truly a theatrical experience that left me breathless, shaking, and fraught with passion for my chosen occupation.

Equus was a lovely event in the ongoing balance between schoolwork, prep for my show, and work work. Yesterday I had a ten-hour shift that included moving a piano, and I am quite, quite sore today. Sore enough that I am considering another shower to relax my arms and thights and abs, even though my hair will hate me for it. Sometimes the muscles need what they need, and my rice bag is unforunately at my parents' house. Laaaame.

I had a strange dream last night that Michael Cera was at a diner in my hometown and we had to dance together. I was excited and he was shy and a little annoyed. Even though it just happened in dreamland, I am still a little blushy about it. I do love me some Michael Cera--he's just so darn adorable.

I've been doing some knitting lately, mostly on Muir (7 repeats down, 5 or so to go) and I've been trying to make surplus gifts. I have four birthdays and 5-8 Christmas presents to complete every September throught December, and I'm trying to start early without specifying who gets what. Here is the first pair of two of pink mitts:

The yarn is completely obscure--a label I think is discontinued from my mom's stash, but I think it's 100% wool. It's got the lanolin-y feel some older yarns have in spades.

I also forgot to show you what I did with some handspun my sister gave me. It's been around for at least a year, if not more, and I finally just worked it up into a modified Swallowtail on US 9s. It doesn't drape quite like I wanted it too, but it's still lovely, mostly because of the golden-orange sheen of the yarn.

This was also the project that proved I am becoming an obsessive lace knitter. I pinned every point--it's a new thing for me. Le sigh. I live to serve the knitting goddess.

Look how pretty.

My next project (I'm going to have to save up a little for it) is going to be a large sport-weight shawl I can throw on like a blanket to wear to class in the mornings. I have stopped caring about the way people percieve me, and the assigned classrooms are all notoriously cold ones. It's hardly fall and I already get chilly, so hopefully I can scrouge up enough sport or worsted yarn to make something lovely and warm.

Anyone have 12000-1300 yarns of wool sportweight they want to get rid of? No? Okay, that's cool. I can wait.

Up next, getting into the routine and sticking with it. Whee!

Hi Blogland

2008-09-23T06:15:00.000-07:00

*waves*

Just a little post to reassure you that I'm still here, just busy with, ahem, life.

Also, I'm gloating because I got A FREE TICKET TO EQUUS! This is one of the times I love living in this city and being at this school. LOVE IT.

Fear Factor

2008-09-16T19:50:00.000-07:00

Currently, I am only completely terrified of three things:

1. Acting
2. Painting
3. Falling in love.

While there is little I can do about numbers 1 and 3 right now (despite some attractive, personable musicians in the recent past--I have a thing for musicians and green eyes, if you must know), I am doing something about number 2.

Painting class. Makes my palms sweat and my heart pound in a most uncomfortable way. We had our first real session today, and the assignment was to paint a gray scale flat and paint two 3D objects in the same. It took two tries to complete the first assignment, and I am only half finished with the first half of the second part. Here's a picture, if you're interested:

Not bad, right? Have I mentioned that I spent most of the time wanting to run screaming from the room?

There's a lot of pressure in art, or I feel there is. Even if the other artists are not into painting, they tend to have an eye for color and a feel for transforming depth in shape to perceived depth on paper. I was froked out of my flippin' mind today, and I don't know if it's going to get better.

I have found a bright side though: All my other classes are challenging, but in the senses and pathways I'm used to. I know how to write papers, think critically about readings, and participate usefully in class discussions. I know how to write scenes and critique work, and I know how to study for tests. I don't really know how to paint. It's scary and hard and intense and I will learn a lot more in it than in my other classes, I think. The other classes are about practice and acquiring knowledge, whereas this one...I'm floating in the dark.

Well, okay then. I embrace the dark and I will make my own light.

Sleep well, readers.

Sick Day

2008-09-11T09:24:00.000-07:00

First cold of the school year. Yay me! Dosing myself with ginger, peppermint, and cinnamon teas, cold medicine, and tomato soup. I like to toss in leftover cooked rice that's lying around.

Tomato Soup with Rice

2 Tbsp. olive oil
1/4 large onion, diced
1 clove garlic, minced
1 small can tomato paste
2 tsp Vegetable Better Than Bullion
3 cups water
1 1/2 c cooked rice
pepper
thyme
basil
oregano

Heat olive oil in medium pot on medium heat until fragrant. Add onion; when onions are soft and nearly translucent, add garlic. When garlic is fragrant, add water, tomato paste, and Better Than Bullion. Stir to dissolve. When soup begins to bubble slightly, add seasonings to taste. Let simmer at least fifteen minutes. Before serving, add rice and stir until heated through. Serve with toast with your favorite cheese melted on top. Mmm, cheesy toast. Also good with regular toast.

Servings: About four.

Why eat tomato soup instead of chicken? First, I don't eat meat, so chicken is a no go. Second, if you are tired of other vegetable soups this is a good alternative (although if you do eat meat, tossing in leftover chicken or bacon would probably taste pretty good). Third, tomatoes are full of delightful health helpers, like vitamin A, lycopene, and iron, and the magic coldbuster vitamin C. In addition, cooking tomatoes helps release a lot of the nutrients, so eat up! Fourth, the ingredients in this soup are dirt cheap, which I love because I am in college and broke.

It's September? Seriously?

2008-09-10T07:07:00.000-07:00

No, I believe it. It's officially hump day of the second week of classes, and now that I am registered (long sad story involving money and ridiculous) I can sit back, relax, and enjoy my classes. I like talking about them because a) this is the first semester where I think I'll like all of them and b) I think they all play into each other to make exciting connections. Soon the webbing between my right and left brain sides will be as thick as Albert Einstein's and I will rule the world with interdisciplinary studies. MWAHAHAHA!

I'm taking Playwriting (of course) with a new professor, and though it is far more traditionally academic than the previous prof, I think it will be valuable and interesting. It makes me uncomfortable to think so abstractly about the work I do, but that says a lot more about me than it does about the class. It's fear, I think. It's fear of finding that my creative process is not mystical and composed of ponies and rainbows, but rather of the twisting, shifting, transmutating parts of my own mind and personality. Said like that, it doesn't bother me, but when I'm doing the reading, I get squeamish. I'm watching my own sausage being made.

Also taking Intro to Sociology, a requirement, but I think I'll learn a lot about people through statistics that I wouldn't learn otherwise. There are all these little pieces of information that mean nothing on their own, but put together in big groups says something about society. (Which reminds me: read this article on ambient awareness. It makes facebook either a lot more profound or a lot creepier.)

Next I'm taking The Crusades, just for fun, with the freaking amazing history professor I had last year. Being both Catholic and of European descent (and concievably had ancestors fighting in them) I want to know more about the misguided wars of ideology. Maybe the class will help me understand the current misguided wars of ideology. Also, medieval armour is pretty sweet. And I like knowing how Westerners discovered pepper. Between this class and Into to Medieval History, I may be on my way to Medieval Studies minor. That'd be pretty cool, you know?

Last but not least, Painting I. Completely terrifying. My family is wildly excited about it; as one sister said, "You'll speak the same language now." Even my prof said that playwriting and painting are the same thing in different languages. You see, it's as if my family were born green sheep and I was born a purple sheep. We love each other, and we're all creative sheep, but we don't necessarily understand each other. I wonder if they think I'm going to learn to be a green sheep, or at least purple with green spots. Now a class I'm taking for fun has a lot of pressure on it; send me good thoughts!

Between classes and grocery shopping, I've managed to unpack and do a little knitting. This a little veiw of my desk:

And this is my veiw (and one of the reasons I'm staying in the dorms all four years):

And yesterday I made bread pudding. The best value on loaves of bread at Whole Foods is a large loaf of Italian for $2.49. It's cheaper and is bigger than any of their other loaves, and I have issues with pre-sliced bread and their preservatives. I think it's being raised by hippies on homemade bread my whole life. And because I know that I don't have time right now to make my own bread, I buy. The only problem is that I hardly ever make it through a whole loaf of bread before it goes stale, so I make bread pudding every week or so. It's simple--6 slices of bread, milk, egg, sugar, and spices, all in a delightful custardy mess that ends up being a sort of deconstructed French toast.

Here's the recipe:

Bread Pudding

6 slices of stale bread, chopped or torn into bite-sized pieces
4 eggs, beaten
2 cups of milk
3/4 cup of suger
2 tsp. vanilla
2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. cloves
pinch freshly ground nutmeg

Put bread in an 8"x8" square or 9" round pan. Whisk all other ingredients together. Pour over bread and let soak for fifteen minutes, pushing down bread so all pieces are soaked. Bake in preheated 350 F oven for about 45 minutes, or until golden and springy. Optional: Sprinkle 3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips or dried fruit over bread and egg mixture before baking. Serve hot with raspberry jam.

I like making mine with chocolate chips and eating with jam, and around the holidays I like to eat it with homemade cranberry sauces. (Also easy. I will share the recipe when it gets closer to Thanksgiving.) The pudding also goes well with cinnamon tea:

Yum.

But I also have knitting to show you. During the drama that was me trying to register for classes, I knit mindlessly on a pair of basic socks to keep myself together and relieve a little of the stress. I call them the Avalanche Socks, because I felt like I was staring down an avanlanche and taking it apart one snowflake at a time. They're knit out of really old Knit Picks Essential Tweed from my stash, and I'm not sure how much I used because it was only a partial skein. They were knit using the Turkish cast on, on US 3 circs, 56 stitches.

I've also started my first real lace project in ages. I think Patti's shawl wore me out a little.

Can you guess what it is?

And now for your moment of musical zen. This is the song This Year by the Mountain Goats. It starts at the 13 second mark. It's kind of my anthem for college. Each year is 'this year'.

Surprise!

2008-08-29T16:53:00.000-07:00

This was in my inbox this morning:

CONGRATULATIONS! You are a privileged recipient of the NON-BLOGGING AWARD! Your negligence, and we can only assume, Laziness, have qualified you for THIS AWARD!

Oh, wait, it wasn't! because the wifi stopped working. I am currently blogging from the sketchy "link sys" connection, only because I trust my firewall and I have set my computer on "not share" (or whatever that function is called).

And I can hear your voices now, "Sarah, what is your reason this time for avoiding us? It is us? Do we smell? Are we mean? Why, Sarah, why?"

One word: packing. I returned home to lovely Washington, and opened my suitcase, and BAM! it was raining shirts and underwear like men. I was caught in a blizzard of stuff, and I swear on JC himself, it multiplies. It breeds. All my single socks talk to the tank tops and shorts and they go at it in a sick, twisted, cotton love nest. The yarn does it too, but that is a beautiful part of life, not like those dirty garments. Sick, I tell you, it's sick.

In between cleaning out my old room (only one bag of Goodwill stuff this time instead of three--progress!) and repacking and laundry and friends, I've been doing a little knitting and crafting. First up, knitting. I did a massive wash and block this week of various items that need either washing or blocking. The washing:

My classic orange sweatervest (that looks infinitely better on, I promise). I've been wearing it for two years and have just now gotten around to giving it a good swish in wool wash. Knit with Knit Picks Palette in Fawn. (The name is misleading; it's really quite orange.) Also needing a wash:

One of the first things I knit that I liked, I call this the Sorbet scarf, and I'd worn it for at least two years (almost every winter day) in high school without washing. The water was kind of gross, but now it's delightful and fluffy again. Knit with vintage mohair from my mama's stash.

The pink and green socks I knit this last year on my sock jag, wore them with pride, and put them through their washing paces. The darker socks below are new, and I blocked them as a birthday present for my friend Gillian, who is moving to Cali this week. The pink are Knit Picks Wool of the Andes, and the others are Knit Picks essential. I had a big thing for Knit Picks for a while, can you tell? It's the damned collegiate wallet, you know.

The purple scarf is my first lace, the ever-present Branching Out from Knitty. I wish I'd had more yarn, and it was exciting to block my first lace. (I had knit it before the wonderful magic of blocking had made itself apparent to me.) It's a scarf I can use when it's not so cold out, when a little one works to cut the wind.

These beauties match Josh's Manly Socks, except shorter and for me because I thought I was going to run out of yarn. I finished them today, and after they get blocked I promise I will show them to you again.

In other crafting news, this

plus this

equals this:

It's Western-style shirt I got from Target a few years ago for about three bucks. The sleeves were too tight on my excellent breadmaking-housewife muscles and so I decided to make them fit and look pretty. Look at the pretty!

The Shirley Temple Classics was a strange and disturbing collection of her early shorts, including one called "War Babies" that I watched about five seconds of and turned off. There were a lot of toddlers playing musical instruments and getting whipped by another toddler and ew. Just creepy and ew.

I did a lot of crafts this week, not in the least a lovely little necklace that is one the newer manifestations of my bottlecap obsession. Look at how nice. The only problem is that the caps keep wanted to turn backwards, but it still looks interesting.

By the way, the video from last time was "White Winter Hymnal" by Fleet Foxes (on Subpop Records). You get another video this post! Lucky you! It's from one of my favorite bands ever, the adorable Tegan and Sara. I saw them live in 2004? 2005? Anyway, it was right before they got big, and they were on a little tiny stage at a music festival, along with The Bravery and the Kaiser Chiefs (two bands I also love). This is from their album "The Con" and is called "Hop A Plane". I'm going to hop a plane soon, and I'm going east, and there is certainly someone who I want to say to me that they aren't mine. Deep, no? Doesn't it make you miss college? In any case, I invite you to listen to the cutest Canadian lesbian twins ever. I remember when I saw them, the crowd was just standing there listening, and they stopped playing and said, "You guys are the quietest we've ever played to. It's like we're in a library." It made us all laugh.

A Hare Behind

2008-08-24T23:37:00.000-07:00

In the fable "The Tortoise and The Hare" the tortoise wins the race because he is persistent and optimistic, and the hare loses because he takes a nap in the middle of the race, convinced that his head-start is big enough to win anyway. I wonder now how the hare felt when he couldn't catch up--so far behind that the fastest sprint would put him a tetch behind. See: me, right now.

I haven't uploaded photos onto Flickr, updated my Rav page, or glanced at the blog in weeks, more shame on me. Turns out weddings are quite a lot of work that take time and energy and all your sanity. The most relaxing point of the last week before the wedding was sitting in my sister's hotel room, drinking ginger ale and watching the Style Network because the remote was broken. If you can avoid packing up your life, moving between hotels rooms, and being in a wedding in several short days, I recommend it.

California was sunny and gorgeous nearly every day (and I have the sunburn to prove it) and in contrast, Washington is instant winter. We've had record-breaking rains since I've been home, gray skies and cool temperatures and no chance of sunburn. Honestly, I like it. It's refreshing, and the air is clear and clean. I've worn sweatshirts here, though, and I was hoping to skip that until I got back to New York (where it is, of course, in the high 70s).

Little knitting. Summer blahs got me in the end, and I didn't bother with the Ravelympics. Here are a few photos of older FOs, just for the pretty:

Josiah's finished socks. Wildfoote yarn, my own pattern. He loved them, and left me a little note on the bathroom mirror in Sharpie. (By the way, awesome way to leave notes. You just need rubbing alcohol to wipe it off.)

The finished sample hat for the store. Similar to the green one, but a better, more streamlined design, and ended up being a little smaller. I do love working with the Tilli Thomas, but I will probably never do it on my own dollar. Thank goodness for store samples, eh?

Moebius scarf made with leftovers from Patti's shawl. I wish it would drape a little wider, but you can't ask much from laceweight silk/alpaca knit on US 9s. It's breezy, and kinda classy. It was a trifle, meant to distract and amuse, like Orlando Bloom.

And this is what my back looks like when I'm knitting. Note the terrible posture, and my Knit Picks Options binder, acquired before they stop giving them away with every set. You can also kind of see what I did with the Tilli scraps--full reveal later when I can find my camera.

To all of you who have moved in and out of dorms: how did you survive? and also, I don't know if the floor of my room at the parents' house will be seen again. God help me.

In conclusion, watch this:

A little off-topic...

2008-08-08T00:03:00.000-07:00

I had a big long post planned out with lots of picture that I've already processed (including wedding dress pictures) but I have since been distracted by this post on feministing.com, one of my new daily reads.

I often have a lot of trouble with feminism, as sometimes it seems like women use it as excuse to be miserable because the patriarchy makes it so. I want and am working for recognition and cessation of the problems women face because of their gender, but I call myself an equalitist, because it seems to allow others to open their minds to more discussing. Saying "feminist" makes a lot of people tune out. It reminds me of an episode of Buffy when Anya is trying to get Willow and Tara to make a wish, and they tell her they don't despise men. She huffs and says they're terrible lesbians. Replace lesbian with feminist and you've got a common perception.

The post is about a woman who is fat, and how it shocks people when she uses the word as a neutral adjective rather than a pejorative. There is wild discussion in the comments, and as often happens in these discussions, a woman said that she couldn't believe how when she was miserable and skinny, people just told her how good she looked. I started thinking about what beauty is made of.

As I've mentioned before, I had a tough time my first year of college, and made some decisions that did not benefit me. This last year, my second, I made some changes to cultivate my own happiness. Every time I saw someone for the first time, they commented on how great I looked. My appearance hadn't changed; not even a haircut. I realized that they saw something in my face--light, maybe, or serenity--that made me beautiful.

I went to a club on the Strip last week for about an hour. It was stuffed full of gorgeous girls (none who were my type, natch) who almost all looked unhappy. They weren't beautiful anymore once I noticed that. It was surreal. I was in a grotto, almost, rocks walls and candles and crowds of people drinking and carousing, and I don't know if any of them were genuinely happy.

This is my truncated conclusion to a long opening (I am a sleepy panda): Happiness is a choice. Choose happiness, and you will be and feel beautiful no matter what.

Then go and listen to this song. It will also make you happy.

LIke Mama Always Said,

2008-07-31T00:04:00.000-07:00

"Sarah, what book are you reading now?" whenever I declared my allegiance to a new doctrine or science. I am a, well, persuadable person. My cousins voted me "most likely to join a cult". Then I reminded them that I still believe in JC and they laughed and said I was already in one.

Although I've gotten better about it over the years, I still have a tendency to pick a position and defend it with my life until I've thought about it more, and that leads to a lot of sheepishness. Thank you, Bonnie, for your gracious reminder about making sweeping statements, and your accurate point about gray areas in capitalism. I do stand by my pledge; it does me personally less good to buy from a large company when the small ones are employing me, but I am not going to judge those who make different decisions. I don't know your story; how can I qualify your choices? And please don't take my word as gospel. I am young and still learning and not fit to be a messiah of consumption.

I also stand by a skepticism of large corporation, no matter what their beginnings. I remember when Starbucks was a small, PNW business, and now it's so large and saturated the market so intensely that it is losing money to itself. I am concerned whenever companies are so large that transparency is impossible; I want to know what is in my sausage. (Purely theoretical sausage, of course, or perhaps soy sausage. It's soysage!)

You are all encouraged to read Bonnie's thoughtful comments on my last post, and then scoot over to her blog where she does that all the time. She's a thinker.

Send me some good vibes; I'm still figuring out finances, but I think I'm almost there. Just goes to show you where creativity and persistence and research will get you--to edumacation!

And I'm going to see Dark Knight tomorrow. This is shaping up to be a fairly decent week.

I am so rocking the house.

2008-07-29T22:51:00.000-07:00

When I thinking about blogging regularly (not actually, but mentally turning the idea over), I thought about how mundane my life is. Generally, school, work, write, friends, sleep. Repeat. In Cali, it's been sleep, cat, knit, write, tv, sleep. Repeat. Occasionally work. But oh, how three days can change your perspective and your duties.

You see, darling readers (now that I know I have them--contests are awesome), I am in the midst of the semi-annual Financial Aid Crisis. Each semester before I have a chance to sneakily register for classes, the uni figures out that I haven't paid my outstanding bill. Because I am broke. Broke like a bike with no chain, mofos. I am okay with being broke. I am not okay with not being able to register. So each and every semester, I embark on a frantic search for more money, more loans, or more understanding. I'm a trooper--I manage. And it builds valuable character. (Unfortunately that has no dollar translation.) Please forgive the elevated stress level.

So now my routine is look for job, apply for scholarships, call school, apply for scholarships, look for job, make lists. Sleep is currently optional. That's also okay. I am young and strong and have a fridge full of frosty delight to make my nights more manageable.

My next move is to try and make a quick buck working for a maid service. I clean well, I think, and I hope they take me on. Or that I win the lottery. That sounds nice, too.

In brighter news, I have pictures of a couple of Patti's sweaters, the Fruity Sweater (Rav link) and her Ziggy Top (no link yet--have to post on Rav still). Take a look see.

Fruity:

Ziggy:

The colors on them both are a little washed out, but you can see how lovely their insides are. The lace pattern on Fruity is just lifted from the Baudelaire sock pattern (I think I had soliloquy on lifting lace charts a little while ago) and both sweaters were designed and knit for my sister Patti.

I'm knitting another store sample out of the Tilli Thomas, which is fun as I don't get to play with silk very often, and that makes me think of another thing.

I've decided to stop buying from Knit Picks.

This is a difficult decision, considering the state of my finances (see above) and the fact that I've really enjoyed all the yarn I've bought from them. But today I made a sudden and firm pledge to support my LYSs. Two of them have paid my bills, and by supporting a company that hurts them, I'm hurting myself.

The concept extends beyond yarn and yarn stores, as well. Large corporations, by their very nature, cannot support the vibrant communities that based on mutual economic support and personal relationships. It is impossible to get to know every person involved in Starbucks, Nike, or Victoria's Secret, and the disconnect leads to a objectification of each person in the process, from the CEO to the janitor to the factory worker to the consumer. Why should any of those people give a fuck about the others they affect up and down the line? They don't know each other, and if they don't know it, they can't see it. The CEO sees the factory worker as a machine and the consumer as a statistic; the consumer sees the CEO as a fat cat and the marketer as a manipulator; and we don't know what the factory worker thinks because ten to one she is illiterate or in a censored country.

However, if you do know the people involved, if your neighbor crafted the the shoe and your neighbor sold the shoe and you all have a stake in the health of your community, it all changes. Economic growth can stimulate artistic and social growth, and yes, it can work together for the betterment of us all.

But it's in small steps. I'm pledging to buy new yarn from small businesses. What are you going to do?

WINNERS!

2008-07-26T11:00:00.000-07:00

I was planning on only giving away one prize, but princesspea's nice comment made me change my mind. So Bonnie and princesspea, you both get a special surprise! I don't know what it is yet, but it will be totally awesome!

Post-Script

2008-07-25T15:17:00.000-07:00

The first person who comments on my blog gets a special surprise.

This contest will run until someone comments.

Portrait Time

2008-07-25T14:35:00.000-07:00

Call it a reaction to photographer parents, an insistence on perfection, or a side effect of several years of bad skin, but I have problems seeing pictures of myself. In the last couple years I have actively avoided cameras when they are brought out at parties, and only are photographed when pressed or mugged. Often this means that I am intoxicated, in bad lighting, and/or completely unprepared, all of which equal bad pictures. More bad pictures turns to more avoiding cameras, and the vicious cycle continues. (I was going to include an example, but...No one should see those if they don't have to. Think red-eye, dark circles, and unflattering clothing. Urgh.)

This can be a problem with knitting photos. Some things, like hats and socks and sweaters, look a lot better on than they do flat. Which means I have to wear them and then poof! picture of Sarah. In the spirit of Team Knit, I'm going to show you a couple of face pictures to defear (it is so a word) myself. Here goes...

You'll notice on my head a lovely green slouchy hat, a new addiction of mine. It's number three, numbers one and two being Urchin and the Mary Jane Pithy Hat. I haven't got photos of them right now. They were knit PC (pre-camera). This new hat (more pictures follow)

is a little Tilli Thomas they let me play with at A Mano. It's 100% silk, and has sequins spun into it. I've gotta say I love the sparkle. Sparkle sparkle... I swear I was a magpie in a previous life. Here's the breakdown:

Sparkle Slouch
32" US 8 Knit Picks Options (nickel-plated)
1 skein Tilli Thomas Disco Lights, colorway Moss

The only trouble I has was getting an accurate swatch. I'm used to wool, and the slippery drape of silk really threw me off. Eventually, I cast on 84 stitches and made up a pattern, then went back, picked up around the bottom, then folded the ribbed hem in half and bound it off into the first row of plain stitches after the original ribbing.

That's confusing, isn't it?

I cast on 84, knit 10 rows 2x2 rib, knit the rest of the hat and bound off at the top. Then I went back and picked up 83 stitches along the bottom and knit 10 more rows matching ribbing, folded it in half on the inside, and then bound off one stitch from the needles with one stitch picked up from the inside of the hat, continuing to the end. The folded hem gave the ribbing a little more heft and grip so it wants to sit on my head instead of sliding off. I did a similar fix (only to add length) on Patti's Fruity Sweater (Rav link). Were I to write up a pattern or knit the hat again, I would do a provisional cast on with size 7 needles, knit 20 rows 2x2 rib, then knit a live stitch together with a cast on stitch to the end. This would leave me with a neat, firm folded hem, and I could continue the hat on size 8s as before. I'm loving the folded hem right now, can you tell?

In other knitting news, I've made some progress on Josiah's socks:

Looks good, doesn't it? I'm starting to enjoy the figure 8 cast on, now that I've had a little more practice with it. It's so darn efficient. The only problem is the difference between the two socks:

The second one has much better tension-more even and tighter. The first sock was a practice for working with five DPNs and the cast on, and even as I progress further on the second sock, I know that I'm going to go back and reknit the first one. I know Josiah won't care, but I think it will drive me crazy.

Thoughts? Should I let it go (since I will rarely see these socks and they're not for my feet anyway) or should I give in to my OCD and just redo the damn things?

I'm using Wildfoote for another project, a store sample for A Mano. Annette requested that I knit the Long Lacy Gloves (Rav link) from Lace Style. The color choices changed them from refined boho chic to an edgier, punk accessory. I kind of love the transformation--the power of color, people! Right here, right now!

I'm almost done with the first one, and will begin the second soon. They're quite long.

And that's all the knitting for this week! To be honest, I'm a little sick of knitting for others right now, but that's okay. I've that sock pattern from the Sox In swap that I can knit for me out of the left-over smooshy, and I've got another design for a lace-weight overshirt bubbling around in my head. What's scary is that I'm going to have to start thinking about Christmas presents soon--I feel like I have to top myself every year, and last year will be hard to beat. The list is burbling with the design, though, and I just have to figure out how to felt without a top-loading washer. But it's still a secret, shhh.

For now, ladies and gentlemen, I've got a play to rewrite. Wish me luck!

On Holiday

2008-07-20T22:37:00.000-07:00

That's what it feels like, anyway. None of the boredom of doing little every day, but the welcome respite from working hard most of the time. Do you remember the day you figured out you liked being productive more than not? I'm convinced that humans are happier when they have purpose in their lives, something they do that they can value. It seems like a valuable survival tactic, for if Hunter-Gatherer not only fed himself but felt good after a long day of hunting-gathering, well, he'll survive better than the guy without the warm fuzzy feeling.

Warm fuzzy feelings are part of the revolution. Keep that in mind. Also a part of the revolution: pancakes, dancing, and fresh produce. Also bubble tea. (Known here in LA as boba tea. I think that's weird. Up in Washington it's known only as bubble tea, or it's delicious sister, bubble tea milkshake. Cultural differences, ya know what I mean?)

So what have I accomplished this week? This:

Definitely not as bad as before. Just check my last post. Although it seems much of the mess has migrated to my yarn drawer:

In this picture you can also see my iPod cover (very old--knit before I had a sense of fiber) and the wheel of Josiah's bicycle. I was thinking of taking it out for a ride, but as he is about a million miles tall and I am not, it seemed like a venture destined to end in tears.

I also worked some on Josiah's socks. The first one is done, the second...Well, see for yourself.

I had actually finished the toe of the second one, but somehow it ended up a lot smaller than the first. I think then I was still getting used to the figure-8 cast on, and my tension was fairly loose. I'm going to attempt to duplicate it by doing the toe increases with four needles instead of two, because it will otherwise drive me insane.

And now for something completely different. Despite now owning a delightful digital camera (bless the Random Acts of Kindness Ravelry group) I keep forgetting to take it with me places. It seems permanently delegated to the place in my brain labeled 'Knitting'. I had an awesome week and did many exciting things, but you will just have to take my word for it.

On Thursday I went out with my new friends Alina and Drew to the Valley for a film noir dance party. Although there was little film and less dancing, I met a lot of interesting people and talked a little about philosophy and Jesus and other parties to throw. We ended up sitting on a little concrete patio in a rickety glider putting our feet up on one another while a group of hipsters in fedoras drank 40s of malt beverage. Let it be said that I will never get over that kind of class. At other points we sprawled on blankets in the backyard beneath a tree with a face (like Grandmother Willow in Pocahontas) and there was much rejoicing. I made it home at 3:30 AM. A Good Time Was Had By All.

Coffeeshop guy and girlfriend (also known as Matt and Tawny) claimed Friday as beach day. We didn't go in the water, as afternoon obligations precluded getting wet, but there is nothing more entertaining than wandering around Venice Beach playing "Would You". "Would You" is a game in which you followed the first two words with things like "have that hairstyle", "ride that bike", and my personal favorite, "wear that marijuana leaf costume". Votes are tallied and discussed at length. We all voted yes on the costume. That kind of thing takes guts, you know.

Last night (the past three days seemed a lot longer than they appear here) Patti and Josiah and I went to glow, a dusk-to-dawn music and arts festival on the Santa Monica Pier. Their friend had composed a piece that was to be played by an orchestra on the ferris wheel, which was damn cool. There were lots of lights and a ton of people, and though we all kind of wished for more arts and music, it was certainly decent for an event's first try. There were groups of people on the sand making luminaria and they looked like fairy circles in the dark. Also cool was a giant holographic light and water show that looked, at times, like the Northern Lights. (Or what I imagine they look like, anyway. I will see them someday.)

I'm ending my weekend with Shameless Promotion.

Go buy things from my Etsy store! It's on the sidebar!

If you have a love of wit and singing...

2008-07-16T17:46:00.000-07:00

Or even just for one or the other, go watch this. Right now.

It's Joss Whedon's newest genius creation, and if it's successful, it could change the way people think about entertainment media.

Which means in the future, I could get paid fairly for the work I do for the internet and TV and movies.

So really, if you watch it, you are supporting my future offspring.

Have a heart. Do it for the children.

Shopping Like A Mofo

2008-07-13T14:31:00.000-07:00

So between the last time I posted and today, I somehow acquired an actual SoCal social life. A friend from high school is down here going to the Fashion Institute and she invited me out on Friday to hang out with a group of her friends. It was really sweet of Bri to call me, and we had a lot of fun--champagne, a pool, and delicious homemade pizza, not to mention the MOST EPIC DRUNK DIAL EVER. Someday I will reveal the contents, but let me tell you someone got a transcendently awesome message.

The next day I went to The Mystery Bookstore for a book launch Children of the Black Valley (Amazon link). I'm really excited to read it; he's a dark mystery writer and his last book had a definite sci-fi aura. He is a complex plotter and writes multidimensional characters, and my whole family is just so proud of him. Two published novels by age 25!

In the last week I also knit these:

I am calling them Josh's Manly Socks, as they are for my friend Josh and I tried to make them sort of manly. He wanted purple gay pride socks, but he also has a masculine feel. I just knit a basic toe-up sock pattern and added baby cables on the sides:

Here's the breakdown:

Josh's Manly Socks
US 3 40"
Dream In Color Smooshy, colorway Visual Purple

The Smooshy is freakin' sock yarn crack. It was a dream to knit with, easy on the hands, nice and stretchy but also springy, and makes a lovely thick fabric. I was also impressed with the stitch definition and the subtle color changes, which were not striking enough to pool but not light enough to damn the yarn to the boring category. Here's a Ravelry link. I got the yarn in the Music With Sox In Swap from crewgrrl, who also sent me a lovely CD, chocolate, and a delightful-looking sock pattern.

But here I was supposed to talk about my new social life and I got distracted by socks. Tch tch. Ahem.

My favorite Unurban guy, Matt, was my first new friend here. He's one of those easy going scruffy musician types, and we're going to the beach today! which is perfect, because I bought a new bikini from Old Navy this morning. I managed to hit the store just after the pieces went on sale but before they were cleaned out, so I got me a cute one for about $16. See?

Oh, and remember this?

It's the Rona Shawl. (Rav link) I gave it to my oldest sister, the one who is getting married, and she almost cried. Four month of hauling it around and then the really fun blocking was all worthwhile. I just hope I've got some time before the next sister gets married. I don't know how I'm going to equal or top it. For now I'm just knitting her honey, Josiah, socks:

They're knit on US 2 DPNs. 60 stitches and a 8.5" for men's shoe size 11. I'm really liking the Wildfoote; it doesn't have the stretch or spring of Smooshy, but it feels like it will wear like iron. And now, as my bedside table looks like this:

I need to go clean a little.

I Promise I'm Cute When I'm Not Passing Out Or Vomiting

2008-07-05T18:23:00.000-07:00

Don't you wish you knew where THAT header came from?

No, actually, I don't think you do.

True to form, as soon as I decided to focus on my own projects, creativity, etc. (by the way, go over to Etsy and help me make my first sale), I got a job. At a yarn shop! Yay. Serendipity brought me to A Mano in LA at exactly the right moment and got me a temp position for the next couple of weeks, at least. I love it there. It is one of my favorite LYSs ever--friendly people, great yarn, good times all around my friend. Go yarn.

Now that I'm on the upswing from a nasty virus, I'm getting ready to send out my first swap package. I'm excited for it, as I made a delightfully summery CD cover. Said virus is making my head hurt now, so I'm going to leave you with this miniature blog post and say goodbye.

The Suggestion Box

2008-06-23T08:31:00.000-07:00

Sometimes the universe has to hit me over the head with things. It's like flirting. I just think people are being nice, and it turns out they're not just being nice, they're flirting. The universe has been flirting with me about what my summer should be about. I cannot for the life of me get a job. I've put in applications and I've asked around and all the opportunities I thought were here for me have fallen through.

It's a sign, I think, that I should take another look at my priorities, or rather, the purpose of my summer. My sister suggested today that this is the time for me to work on my own projects, do what I want to do, which is a complete change from the rest of my time. I've been babysitting since I was 11, had my first nanny job when I was fourteen, and haven't had a summer off on my own time since. I've worked for a long time for other people, on their terms, and to an extent, their schedule. I'm not interested in working for a corporation, I'm not interested in getting a crappy, stressful job for six weeks.

I'm going to take this opportunity to work on my knitting and my writing and being creative. I've got an etsy store now (it's in the sidebar!) and I'm getting it together with custom knits, bottlecap earrings, and stitch markers. Maybe I'll add patterns soon... The thing is, sometimes it takes a while for the hint to kick in, but now that I've decided on my focus and my goal, I'm really excited.

This could be completely amazing.

Oooh, What A Sexy Sunburn

2008-06-09T11:16:00.000-07:00

So only a solid month between posts. Totally acceptable, right? My life is busy and full of Important Things To Do.

Well, not right now. It became clear when I got home from school that my paternal grandmother was fading fast, and when she did pass away, my time with my parents was extended by a week. I spent the (in total) three weeks home taking care of my parents, seeing old friends, and renewing acquaintance with people I used to know--that cute boy from high school, the angry girl from middle school, the dog down the street, the TV... Anyway, after the funeral, I went to LA to live with my sister for the summer to see a new place and help her with her upcoming wedding.

I don t have a job yet, and the internship has not emailed me back yet, so I'm on week two of California dreaming. I spend my days walking around lovely, lovely Santa Monica and playing the cat. (Which, by the way, is crazy. Seriously. Naps like a human, is more cautious than Monk.) Most of the time I'd be thrilled with time to do whatever I want, but after a solid month with no purpose, no car, and now with no geographically convenient friends, I'm bored, tired, and lazy. Being alone all the time, being purposeless, is bad for you. I've just discovered this, and although Louisa May Alcott books told me this before, it's one of those lessons you have to learn for yourself. Ennui sucks.

In the way these things go, I have also not been knitting much. Some surprise knitting, a pair of socks for my mother, and I've recently started a little raglan shrug in Tahki Cotton Classic (color 3913). I'm using up some leftovers from my 20th birthday present. (Scary thought--in three months I'll be 21. That's one of those milestone ages, no?)

Beyond that, I have no future knitting plans. I've been perusing projects on Ravelry, but alas, I am poor and do not have enough money for new yarn, and my stash is pretty sad right now. I have two different skeins of laceweight (a Malabrigo in a dusty pink no longer on the website and a Shimmer in Turquoise Splendor), and two incomplete balls of different colored sock yarn. Also one vintage skein of fragile angora laceweight.

In other news, I've been reading this blog lately, and also catching up on this TV show, and just started this book. I'm enjoying all three. Read, watch, comment, and enjoy.

Dip it in the pot of silver, Martha.

2008-05-08T08:46:00.000-07:00

So let me put it this way: I find finals stressful. Perhaps not one of the most original statements ever made, but true. They're awful, because every semester at least one professor expects you to do a project or write a major paper or take a test on something they haven't taught, and you are faced with the reality that you are in the toilet and someone just flushed.

Alternatively, finals can be fun when the professor taught well and you actually took notes and went to class and studied. Example: medieval history. An essay criticizing Charlemagne can be fun, if you paid attention. I mean, the guy had a school travel with him. A whole school, while he was fighting Saxons and taking over Italy and being crowned an emperor. It doesn't get much better than that. Also, my Playwriting final. I cooked feasts and we all drank wine and ate and saw some pretty awesome theater. Work hard, do well. (Most of the time. We don't talk about Chemistry.)

Ahem.

This post was not supposed to be about finals, except to mention that I am procrastinating on a paper due tomorrow that I have been trying (and failing) to write for three days. It's okay, though, it's all part of the process.

This was supposed to be about depression. I saw a guy in the hall the other day who was in my freshman fall theology class (liberation theology--completely awesome) and I remembered what I was knitting during the discussions on James Cohn and Dogma: some simple, ribbed, fingerless gloves. Seamed, thumbhole created by casting off on the beginning of two rows. So simple. I realized that some time in the last year my knitting skills skyrocketed, and I couldn't figure out why. Then I remembered the depression.

It's not like I ever forgot, but sometimes I feel like my freshman year of college was a lost year, that little good happened, and I have many painful, guilt-ridden memories about it. It was a part of the process, though, creating a strong me. Like I was knitting an adult-Sarah, and realized the pattern was wrong for the yarn. I frogged it and picked a new one, but I couldn't have know the pattern was off until I had it on the needles.

Anyway, instead of dealing with my problems, doing my work, and taking care of myself, I knit. I knit a lot; my first big lace shawl, a pretty amazing sweatervest, socks, some good hats, more fingerless gloves, cabled scarves, and generally awesome craftwork.

The moral of the story is that there is always a silver lining, even if it takes a year to see it. Knitting probably saved me and my college career; who knows what would've happened if I didn't make it through that school year?

One of those delicious surprises...

2008-04-20T12:40:00.000-07:00

One of the problems I've had ever since I started knitting beyond cotton garter stitch washcloths is the Fingerless Gloves Issue (FGI). FGI refers to the lack of terribly interesting fingerless glove patterns--after all, you can only knit so many Fetchings and Dashings and sideways seamed garter rectangles before you want to throw your needles in a bonfire. Much as I like Fetching and Dashing, I can't stand cables after awhile. They seem so inefficient, and as a Young Single Female, I love efficiency. Plus juggling with cable needle or DPNs on the subway is a recipe for major disaster; I have enough trouble dealing with dropped sock needles.

Then came Ravelry.

I saw the pattern for the Mermaid mitts, and I fell in love. I made them as a gift, using the chart on the Pomotomous (or rather, Pomatomus. I never get that right) socks. When a few weeks later, my roomie asked for a pair of fingerless gloves, I had an epiphany: Why not pull all my patterns from sock charts? All I have to do is swatch and insert.

It occurs to me that people have probably been doing this for a long time, but it seemed like a gift from the divine, a treasure trove of dozens of patterns came to light. I felt like I'd found the Rosetta Stone. Of course. Sock charts. It seems so obvious now.

That's my favorite way to Ravelry right now. I like going through lace sock patterns, lifting the charts, and planning the flocks of fingerless gloves/mitts/gauntlets/glovelets that will soon adorn my friends and loved ones. I am, of course, completely ignoring the fact that summer is on the way and I will be spending it in Los Angeles. No matter. Gloves are small--they can't make you much warmer if you're not wearing them, right?

And because no post would be complete without pictures, here is one of me singing in my first and last stint as a metal band vocalist:

Enjoyable

2008-03-26T12:56:00.000-07:00

I found a lot of things to appreciate in the last couple of days, as the horribly difficult part of the year seems to have ended. (Knock on wood.) All familial crises have been solved, everyone is employed, healthy, and contented, and I have enough money to live on until summer. Yay for not buying groceries. They are incredibly expensive in New York, especially if you want to eat interesting, healthy, vegetarian meals. I suppose meat is more expensive, but sometimes it seems like it'd be easier to put together a quick sandwich with meat than not. Too bad I don't like the stuff. Le sigh.

Other good things include a dear friend getting his life back together (he's starting school again on Monday!), cinnamon toast, and my cousin in town for a week. It's so good to be around family and people you've known longer than a couple years. There's something special about those conversations. I suppose it's because the things you say have layers that only come with time.

In any case, Cousin is joining the Jesuits (Jesu-what? Jesu-it!) in August, and he likes socks, so I making him a pair with sock yarn I threw into a Knit Picks order on a whim. It's the Essential Multi in Riverbed and I think he'll like them very much. It's a 24-stitch toe up provisional cast on, with 7 wrapped stitches on each side. (That's really more a note for me than for your benefit.) We had a great cup of coffee and a long talk about everything in the whole world.

I also finished the giant mondo Wedding Shawl for my oldest sister. It's about 6 feet across, blue as blue can be, and totally awesome. I feel like I had a baby; it took four months to make and yesterday I peddled it around to all my classes as they have seen me work on it for a long time.

I now have pictures! On Ravelery! Yay!

Sometimes You've Got To Grab It By The Hair

2008-03-23T22:22:00.000-07:00

You'd think it would take fewer than three months to realized that if you don't get a digital camera in the first week, you're not going to get one later. Funding has been regrettably slight lately, as a jobs have dried up and a show and midterms took over my life.

My poor ravelry profile has no pictures, so you'll have to rely on descriptions. My sister's wedding present, the KnitPicks Rona Shawl is finally done, and in a lovely silk/alpaca blend called "Turquoise Splendor". My gauge was a little over the recommended (honestly, why would you concern yourself with that for lace? I usually end up using whatever's handy), and so it blocked out to about six feet in diameter. Four months of work; I hope it's worth it.

Do you ever wonder why knitting is your talent? I do, often. Although knitting has practical application, there's little chance of fame or fortune or even a living at it, and so sometimes I have to ask the universe why knitting rather than higher math, physics, or finance? It's less efficient and less useful that in decades past. Perhaps it's a way of preparing for an impending apocalypse? Urgh. I like indoor plumbing and easy transportation. Somehow, a knack for deconstructing garments seems to pale in comparison. It may just be me.

Other FOs include my long-lasted Vintage Librarian Cardigan, and concoction of vintage wool and angora I found in my mother's attic. The original is a yellowed beige and baby blue, and I'm surprising my roommate with a version in gray and burgundy. Unfortunately, I didn't realize those were our school colors until I had the back and right front completed. C'est la vie. I suppose we'll only be here for two more years anyway. College only lasts four-to-six years; good sweaters last a lifetime.

Also made a new pair of slippers out of blue, yellow, and purple scraps. My original Twinkletoes wore out in the toe, not to mention stretched out like crazy, so I made up a pair based on the idea for the pattern. They're really just socks with the tops off.

Happy Easter.

The End is Near!

2007-12-05T06:59:00.001-08:00

The tracker said my yarn's delivered!

Run awaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!

Two Posts In One Month! My God!

2007-12-03T16:49:00.000-08:00

Just a note to say "growl".

Grrrrrowl.

The mailroom here is slow and really, really sucks. They are holding my yarn hostage because they "close before five". Arg. I really wanted to finish either Mama's shawl or Therese's sweater tonight, and I know that it's just a few floors below, waiting for me...

Lameface mailroom.

Somehow I Can Never Write Often...

2007-12-02T06:44:00.000-08:00

Long time again, but so far I don't think I have any readers (I don't really know how to check) and I still haven't been able to steal, learn how to use, and actually put my roommate's camera to work. I'm hoping to do so with my dad's digital at home, and possibly find one on craigslist for free/cheap.
In any case, I'm on the home stretch with Christmas presents:

Patti-the Caribbean-blue shrug ( my own pattern) has been done since September. Needs blocking. No worries.

Mary-done and blocked. Can't talk about the pattern or yarn because she's on Ravelry too.

Therese-her yellow top-down hooded raglan is almost done. Needs most of an arm and the hood, but I ordered the yarn and it should be here Monday, and so no worries. Although I don't know how the hood will work with the curious, unintentional boat neck.

Mama-the Twinkle Twinkle Little Star shawl is so freaking close! I ran out of yarn two sections before the end. Granted that's 2/5 of the final (freakishly long) row, so I suppose it's not a surprise. The only thing I'm worried about is that it's a lot wider than it is long, and so much of it is stockinette that I don't know how much it will stretch lengthwise during blocking.

Dad- his Henry is done and blocked. It's quite beautiful. I'm pleased with it, and I just hope that Dad will be as well.

In non-family Christmas knitting, my friend Jon asked my for Doctor Who scarf. Now, the one he's talking about has seven colors and has large sections of beige (or white, I can't really tell). I talked him down to three (Royal blue, golden yellow, and plum), but he insisted on it being 8-10 feet long. So I knit about 7 feet in Cascade 220 on US 9 needles, and then blocked the shit out of it. It wound up being just over 11 feet long, stretched all across my living room. It's pretty thin, but at eleven feet, he'll wind it around a few times anyway. I was quite worried about the weight, too, so blocking a smaller scarf solved the problem.

His boyfriend Josh gets the scarf I started for Jon, the doubleknit double helix scarf in black and purple. It was one of those projects meant for The Artist Formerly Known As Boyfriend that I'm commandeering in my life now, not leaving for my life then. Remember, after heartbreak, always keep the jewelry and the yarn.

The vintage yarn cardigan (not Ravelried yet) is on hold until all the commission knitting is done, which follows:

Lauren's Animal Ear Hat-yarn is here, pattern is here, needles are in use. It's a lovely, bright, shiny blue; Knit Picks Wool of the Andes in Blue Bonnet

Sam's Animal Ear Hat-ditto. In Chocolate, which is matte, but a beautiful, rich brown.
Blogger: Krafty Like A Fox - Create Post
Ciara's Mitts-the knitting is done, but the duplicate stitch kanji is killing me. Serves me right for trying to learn new techniques at 2 AM.

I think that's all the knitting.

Come see me at Knitty City! I work Wednesday and Friday afternoons!

And don't forget to add me on Ravelry (VintageTheater)!

Big changes. Big. Huge.

2007-11-04T10:56:00.000-08:00

So why haven't I posted since September? Several reasons.

1. There is no more Boyfriend. It was hard and painful and awful and I'm still hurting, so I didn't feel like blogging pictureless posts because that would just be more sad.

2. Not a whole lot to report. My knitting just picked up speed and I've been flying around with needles and yarn and learning to do split-splicing and all that loveliness.

3. There is no number three.

4. School owned my ass for quite a while, and will continue to do so.

"But, Krafty", you may be asking, "why didn't you just abandon the blog altogether?" Excellent question. The answer is, I got an invite to Ravelry. (My name is VintageTheater.) Beautiful, beautiful Ravelry. I would feel terribly guilty if any new friends wandered over here and saw just a few lonely posts. Plus Roomie said she'd let me use her camera for this sort of thing. I love Roomie. She's great.

In knitting news, I've got two whole Christmas presents done, one well on its way, and a fourth being a massive bitch. The fifth will be cast on as soon as I get the thread for the third. To clarify:

Oldest Sister's present is done. I hope she will like her shrug. It's my design (cabled, with giant ribbed collar that can be pinned in front) in Knit Picks Swish Superwash Capri. (I ordered all my Christmas yarn from Knit Picks because I am poor.)

Second Oldest Sister's present is also done and awaiting blocking. I can't tell you what it is because she may read this.

Third Oldest Sister is getting a top-down raglan sweater of my design in Superwash Daffodil. She's got a yellow personality, and I'm going to attempt a hood. However, all my threads are being used, and I have to wait for a 32" to be freed when my 60" comes for...

Mama's Christmas Shawl. It's the Twinkle Twinkle Little Star Shawl from elann.com, knit in Telemark Garnet Heather. I was a little worried when I got the yarn, as it seemed sturdy, but kind of rough. Knitting with it has been nice, though, and it's softened up quite a bit. I've finished Chart 1 and will move on to Chart 2 today. I wanted her to have a warmer, heavier shawl for her winter naps.

Dad's Scarf. It's driving me crazy, because it the Henry scarf from Knitty, and it's dense, tight knitting on teeny tiny needles. I can only do a couple of rows before my hands cramp up, and I'm not even on the second repeat yet. I'm on one of six. Ech. I hope I finish in time. It's in Palette Verdant Heather.

Lots of knitting to do. Lots of knitting. So much yarn...

Happy September!

2007-09-01T08:59:00.000-07:00

So it came to me today that I may actually acquire some readers if I post more than twice. I'll be going back to school tomorrow (way to early in the morning) (go FU!) and thus, able to exploit my boyfriend's digital camera. (I always want to spell it "camara". Too many years of Spanish...)

The shawl came out wonderfully. And enormous. Mama could probably use it as a blanket, which, of course, was the point. Something lovely to wrap around herself while crafting and big enough to use for naps but light enough for summer days.

Next big project on the list: a cardigan. Self-designed, out of vintage sport-weight wool. It's called "heather" but has definite yellow tendencies, and I'm adding a little bit of vintage blue angora intarsia on the bottom and the cuffs. I'm designing it to be almost tunic-length, with a large ribbed edging, though that may turn into seed stitch or some other type of stretchy.

Also up next, a shawl for my sister's wedding present. I want to use white, because it's traditional and won't fade really, but will possibly go for blue, as she is nontraditional and blue is her favorite color. Of course, her husband will be left out in the cold on that one, so brain-racking is in order.

In addition, I have three hats with animal ears on commission (they're just paying for the yarn) and Boyfriend's linen-colored hat with green skulls to use. I just have to check my debit card account and see how much I have left--scary thought.

Oh, So Slow

2007-07-27T05:04:00.000-07:00

I think it may be because it's my take-along project, but Branching Out is going about as quickly as a turtle on a tricycle. A tricycle with a broken wheel. It's progressed 10--yes, 10 whole rows!--since yesterday, and as the damn thing is only 25 stitches wide, I feel like this is...undesirable.

However, up next is something new and different--a hat. For me! It's the Mary Jane's Pithy Hat, by Little Turtle Knits, which can be found here. I only brought a few colors of yarn with me, teal, burgundy, and cherry-red, and I can't even remember where I got the the teal, let alone how much there is. It could be one of those great "let's start and rip it's not enough" projects, but I hate those. They're so disheartening. Of course, I have plenty burgundy and red, both Knitpicks Swish Superwash. I think the red's called Red Pepper and the burgundy is Bordeaux.

Tick Tock

2007-07-24T10:07:00.000-07:00

So I was waiting to get/borrow/steal/figure out how to use my father's digital camera before I started posting, but that seems to be impossible at the moment, so I figured I should post anyway. What good is a knitting blog without pictures? I don't know, but we shall find out.

Currently, I working (slowly and surely) on lace. (Thanks to the The Rainey Sisters for their wonderful inspiration. They got me to try lace, and maybe soon I'll attempt fair isle.) I knit the free elann.com shawl pattern Garden Path, in Peruvian Pure Alpaca Italian Plum (as seen to the left). The shawl has yet to be blocked, but since it is at home with my mother and I am 2500 miles away in Cincinnati, it will have to wait until August.

With the leftovers, I'm knitting (again) Branching Out, from knitty. It's the first lace I tried, and it's one of my favorites--simple enough for plane knitting, and concise enough for smaller yardage. Plus, I like purple.