Thursday, September 29, 2005

dear diary: life is cool.

yeah hi, my camera works again. My new excuse for never picspamming is work/TWH/concerts/occasional need for sleep.

(job rocks, btw. I pretty much love it to pieces. Nobody even batted an eye when I asked for a week off for TWH. Soon the company network will be flooded with HP-themed computer names, Hermione being the first one.)

Lauren posted at 1.35 on 09.29.05 comments (0)

Sunday, September 25, 2005

visualize success but don't believe your eyes

Excellent news -- I have a job! I interviewed on Friday and got a call with an offer not twenty minutes later, so starting tomorrow I'm a temp-to-perm computer geek at a technology investment firm in midtown. I'm surprised and excited and happy beyond the telling of it, because finding a job is the first step to me really being able to stay in the city long-term. I need to make sure, but I was told that taking time off for the Witching Hour won't be a problem. I really just can't believe how lucky I am. :D

The weather has finally cooled off in New York. I love the fall, because it means I can show off socks and scarves and sweaters. I've spent the weekend in sweatpants and sweaters and it's making me so happy. Hopefully the cold will stick, because I think everyone's gotten over the Indian summer we've been having.

I started Kiri last night, and so far it's coming along swimmingly. I'm working on US3 needles, which might be a bit small now that I'm a couple repeats into it, but I'm okay with a slightly denser shawl. I think it'd go faster if I didn't stretch out the work after every WS row to admire it, if only because my tension is pretty tight right now and the join on my needles (Crystal Palace bamboo) isn't too agreeable with laceweight.

The Katrina Hermione hat is close to decreasing -- it's been my carryalong project recently since I'm out of yarn on my current String project (a chunky cabled cardigan in their private-label cashmere, wah wah). I keep dragging my heels on the sweater for my landlady -- she has six 100g balls with no marked yardage. Assuming they're similar to Blue Sky Alpacas' sportweight, it's about 220 yards/100 grams, so I'm looking at 1320 yards, which seems like it's cutting it close for a heavily-cabled sweater. Basically I need to sit down and do the math, but wah, lazy.

Anyway, this is just me padding out a RL entry with knitting talk. Someone nag me about updating the GoF reference page! There's so much now that it's a bit intimidating.

Lauren posted at 14.10 on 09.25.05 comments (0)

Tuesday, September 20, 2005

pwnage!

At some point last year, I plotzed all over LJ about the way that Jany Temime has the Trio rewear clothing during the course of PoA, as though it's their favorite outfit -- Harry's navy tracksuit jacket, Hermione's pink zip-up, and Ron's Fair Isle Sweater of Hotness come to mind first. I was really tickled to see that level of attention being paid to the development of the kids' different styles, especially since the casualwear in SS and CoS was pretty disinteresting.

But now Jany's one-upped herself, because Fred and George's offwhite-and-blue hat from PoA is set to make an appearance at the Quidditch World Cup. Not only does that make me all sorts of happy as a geek in general, it ought to light a fire under my knitterly butt about finishing off (or, really, getting started on) the pattern for it. If the animal cracker hat turns up too, I give you all permission to prod me daily, because I'm sorta stalled out as it stands now.

(Also, plz to nag me about sending my camera for repair. I've got the funds -- about $200 -- set aside, I've just been too lazy to go get it packed and sent. I feel like a very bad person.)

Speaking of stalling out... apparently all I needed to do with the vest for String was bitch about it a bit, because I cast on the front on Saturday and finished it this afternoon. The ladies really like it, so I'm happy. I get my next project tomorrow or the day after, although I ought to start knocking out the super-cabley turtleneck my landlady wants. (She's got all this sportweight alpaca she bought in Bolivia and insists on paying me -- don't gotta tell me twice!)

The rest of this post will be spent replying to comments on the last few entries, so if you think it's awfully conceited when bloggers do this, you might as well scroll...

Laurence directed me to her free Kiri shawl pattern, which is currently duking it out with Peacock for the right to come into existence. I think Kiri may win, and not only because I shouldn't be spending $9.50 on a pattern right now. I think Peacock deserves to be done in some opulent variegated hair-of-some-sort/silk blend. I'm trying to be responsible for now, but I'm sure I'll be casting on in no time, because me? willpower? nuh uh.

Suzanne says that Alpaca Cloud is thicker(?!) than most laceweights, which makes me quake visibly in my flipflops. I'm sensing this is a very slippery slope, and one I'm likely to wind up at the bottom of in no time.

Knittingnurse asks which shade of Alpaca Cloud I got, and the answer is Stream. It took a lot of effort not to go with a shade of green, but I'm pleased with my choice. And as far as the Flirty Ruffles shawl goes, the ruffle is exactly the part that I like. I have 1760 yards of yarn, so I may just tack a ruffle onto whatever I make. For a girl who wears predominantly t-shirts and jeans, I sure do like my girly things.

And last but certainly not least, Karen encouraged me on the job front, which is muchly appreciated, because I've felt a bit woe-is-me the last few days. I have two interviews with temp agencies tomorrow (which doesn't quite explain why I'm up now blogging instead of sleeping) and an appointment about a permanent position on Wednesday, so fingers crossed. I know these things take time, but dammit, I need a job yesterday!

Lauren posted at 2.41 on 09.20.05 comments (0)

Sunday, September 18, 2005

yes, i'm nocturnal now

I am not mentioning my job search in this post. You may interpret that in as negative a fashion as you want, and it'll probably be true.

argh.

I've had about as much luck with my current project for String (a burgundy men's vest in Filatura Di Crosa cashmere, mmmmm) as I have with that thing I'm not mentioning. I swear to god, I've never had this much trouble with gauge in my life. I have almost textbook tension these days; I rarely have to switch needle size to get my gauge. This makes me very happy. So when Ivete said I'd probably get my 4.75 sts/" on a 7 needle, I took her word on it. I swatched, it was tight, so I went up to an 8. This seemed fine when I swatched, but by the time I got up to the armpits I realized the back was a couple inches too small. I frogged and went to a 9; same thing happened, except that I noticed only a few inches into the body. Now I'm on a 10 and just barely making gauge with a pretty loose fabric. It's driving me absolutely mad, because I've gone up 3 needle sizes and only picked up like a quarter of a stitch. After two weeks of knitting, I've only just finished the back. It makes me a little miserable.

On the bright side, my Alpaca Cloud showed up yesterday (er, it probably showed up on like Tuesday, but I only made it to the post office yesterday), and... wow. It's so soft and lovely and alpacalicious (and after this much cashmere, me praising softness is a big deal). But um... okay, I knew laceweight was thinner than sockweight. I knew it was meant to knit up light and loose on biggish needles. But like... I've seen sewing thread thicker than this stuff. A teeny part of me is afraid it'll break if I blow on it too hard. I almost never get intimidated by knitting these days, but geez, color me scared.

Not letting that scare me away, though, because my craving for a lace shawl grows every day. (This might be due in part to my wanting to one-up the vastly overpriced travesty the Gap is calling a shawl this season.) So I'm open to pattern suggestions -- I'm eyeing Fiddlesticks' Peacock and Lotus Blossom shawls right off the bat (I actually prefer Flirty Ruffles to either of them, but I have neither enough yarn nor enough money to justify ordering another hank). I'm looking for a semi-circle/Faroese style, something pretty and fairly abstract and interesting, and the cheaper, the better. So, let's hear it!

Lauren posted at 3.16 on 09.18.05 comments (0)

Tuesday, September 06, 2005

making the best of what you have

It's been a while again, hasn't it? Last week was crazy for me, between having a social life and knitting frantically and trying not to stress out over those bits of real life that happen between stitches.

For starters: my financial aid fell through/never happened for the fall semester, so I'm now 11 credits short of finally earning my degree, with no foreseeable way of paying for those credits (~$11,000) out of pocket. Since I'm not in class this semester, I lost my job, so now I'm trying to resolve that as well. (Psst -- if anyone in the New York area needs a receptionist/admin assistant/photographer/IT geek, or knows someone who does, my resume's here. Yarn awaits anyone who gets me a job. ;)) My last day was on Friday, and all the explanations and goodbyes had me choked up all day.

On the topic of Katrina, I don't know what to say that hasn't already been said. My heart goes out to anyone who's been affected. I'm planning to destash by knitting for kids being taken in by a friend of a friend of my mom's in Jersey -- I've never really had the opportunity to knit for kids before, so I'm looking forward to it -- and I ordered another four balls of Andean Silk to do a Hermione hat/mittens set to auction either through MissionFish or Katrina's Keepers, in the same vein as the R2D2 hat that's currently at $360. I haven't got much to donate besides time and blood, both of which I intend to do, and knitting for a cause is such a warm, fuzzy feeling.

I, um, might've deviated from my yarn diet to order 4 skeins of Alpaca Cloud in Stream while I was making a Knitpicks order. I feel no remorse, or at least not much, because I'm itching to do a proper lace project, and I've been really good with finishing things this week. I've averaged 1 finished project every night for the past week, as follows:

Tuesday - Jon's mistake rib socks, since I thought I'd see him that night
Wednesday - String's Ab Fab poncho, which was an absolute delight aside from the degree to which it ate my brain
Thursday - the left TWH Hermione mitten on my morning commute, and the film Ravenclaw PoA scarf I cast on at the book release at night
Friday - worked on Soleil all day and would've finished had I brought an extra ball
Saturday - Soleil (it's just about done blocking now), and weaved all the Ab Fab ends (which is a project unto itself)

So, I think I deserve a bit of a treat, don't I? Aside from the fact that I'm about to dive into piles of cashmere (for String) and alpaca (for my roommate's mom) for my next several projects -- the blue laceweight can just sit and be petted for a while. Not that it'll actually happen, but let's pretend that it will.

eta: Might I just say? Sesame from the new MagKnits would make the perfect house sweater. Substitute your favorite house-colored DK yarn with the darker shade for A and the lighter for B, and it'd be all sorts of cool. I guess it's a blessing in disguise that I'd need a 44" to have decent wearing ease. ;)

Lauren posted at 1.53 on 09.06.05 comments (0)