Thursday, July 28, 2005

but hey, at least dumbledore likes knitting!

Hey, so I hear some book came out a few weeks ago? With, like, magic and snogging in it?

I can't say I was blown away by Half-Blood Prince. (I'll keep this spoiler-free, since there's no way to hide spoilers in an RSS feed.) I can say, though, that I read it so quickly (roughly 14 hours start to finish) and when I was so tired (I'd been up 21 hours when I started reading, do that math for yourself), that I don't really trust my first reaction to it. I got bored toward the middle; I was strangely underwhelmed by the ending. But we're well set up for book 7, and I can't wait.

But who cares about the book when there are costumes to talk about! I'm afraid that I dropped the ball (as always) on getting nice dignified costume pictures, but fortunately my friends and I wound up in the freaking NY Times (zoomed version here), so you can see our costumes decently there. I took some bad pictures of my Quidsocks, and in this one you can see my Quidditch sweater pretty well. I wound up not wearing my sweater sleeves at all - it was stiflingly humid, as July in NYC is apt to be, and I was sweating enough in just the sweater-vest. In case anyone's interested in more pictures from Union Square, all my pictures from the day are hosted here. Most of them are vaguely embarassing, but such is life.

As soon I'd recovered from HBP, I was knee-deep in preparations for moving to my new apartment in Brooklyn, which I did last Wednesday and Thursday. I'm fairly settled in, though not completely unpacked, and I still don't have internet access at home. Nor have I been at work, because on Saturday, in a show of spectacular klutziness, I slipped on wet tile and pulled a muscle in my back. So, instead of being productive, I've spent the last four days holed up in my room, propped up in a loveseat with little mobility from my waist, reading (I finished Tom Robbins' Jitterbug Perfume and am most of the way through The Hobbit; I can only deal with Tolkien when it's my only course of amusement). I only just picked up my knitting yesterday, to turn the heel of the second candy sock (I finished the first one while waiting for HBP and am wearing it here). I'm still waddling around with a grimace on my face, but between my PT (yes, I need physical therapy 'cause I fell three feet; how lame am I?) and the excellent care provided by my mom, I'm at least back in the office today, and much less grouchy to boot.

The one bit of good news I can report is that in the few days that I was internetless and uninjured, I finally got the Quidditch sock pictures off my camera (which, you might recall, broke in a most untimely fashion). They're now color-balanced and set into the pattern, which will officially be finished once I confirm my gauge. Once I have internet at home, I'll fiiiiinally be able to get the pattern online. About freaking time. :p

It's also cooling down a bit in the city, so I'm hoping that this weekend I can pop in my PoA DVD and take a couple last notes to get started in earnest on the animal cracker hat. I think I can deal with bulky-weight wool when the high is 76°, at least.

Lauren posted at 13.02 on 07.28.05 comments (0)

Friday, July 08, 2005

on a roll

I cast off my second Quidditch sweater sleeve last night. whoooohoo! And maybe I've come completely unhinged, but I actually think that my pair of bright blue ribbed, past-the-elbow armwarmer-like things looks sorta cool. Not like I need another pair of armwarmers, since I already have three pairs in yarns ranging from unplied merino to sari silk, but hey. I think I want to dye some elastic (if I can - anyone know whether the casing on thin elastic cord is nylon or polyester? I won't waste the dye if it's poly) and thread it through the inside of my ribbing, because I have a *ahem* slight tendency to flail uncontrollably when confronted with new Potter, and I don't need my fake sleeves falling off in the process.

I'm a few inches past the heel on my candy-colored socks using the Magic Stripes I bought upstate. I'm working four 2-stitch cables around the leg, so it's quick but not too boring. It's a little hard on my fingers, but I think I want to finish at least one sock before I go starting again on Jon's Koigu socks. Gonna just do some purl ridges on those, nothing fancy. I'm still a bit surprised he consented to a non-solid yarn in the first place. :)

Oh! I found my notes for Ron's animal cracker hat last night while hunting for another chart (my duplicate stitch letters, which I also found). I forgot that I'd only charted one repeat of the pattern, and on the same page that I started charting the twins' blue-and-white hat. Another project to work on instead of being even remotely responsible. Score!

My sunburn still hasn't gone away, though it's stopped being outright painful and started peeling instead. Great huge patches of new pink skin peeking through what had finally faded to a rather nice tan. It's just as attractive as it sounds. :p Especially sucks because it's actually been cool/rainy in New York the past few days, and I'm stuck in tank tops without a single cotton sweater to wear (wool seems like an inherently bad idea). Might hafta suck it up and do something about that sometime. O;)

eta: Eruantale is gauging interest on the weasleysweaters LiveJournal community in an HP knitting Room of Requirement (an informal meetup of attendees with a shared interest) at The Witching Hour symposium in Salem this October. Naturally I think it's a fantastic idea, and if you think so too, go leave a comment! You can comment anonymously, so it doesn't matter whether you have an LJ or not.

Lauren posted at 10.30 on 07.08.05 comments (0)

Wednesday, July 06, 2005

lauren: 1. quidsocks: 0.

I'm up at my mom's house outside of Syracuse, have been since Sunday. Before that, I was in Philadelphia with my mom and the aptly named Philly Dave of the SW Line for Live 8, which I won't bother soapboxing about because you've all heard it by now. Besides playing host to the Kaiser Chiefs, an excellent million-person concert, and also to the first live performance by Linkin Park and Jay-Z (normally I wouldn't care, but it's a first, and brilliant marketing to boot), Philly saw another momentous occasion last Saturday:

I.
Finished.
My.
Quidditch Socks.
!!!!!!!!!

I knitted all through the concert (much to the amusement of the many people who could not identify the sock hanging from my needles despite its obvious sock-like shape), a good five inches or so, and finished it off at Dave's house that night. I am pleased beyond words to have finally conquered these f*$%ing socks after 14 months of blood, sweat, and tears. I haven't yet worn both socks together because I think I might just die from the joy of it. What a freaking relief!

I also finished my first Quidsweater sleeve and am about halfway done with what was left on the second one. I'm not even sure I'll get to wear these on the 15th - not if Barnes & Noble make us line up outside, god forbid - so they're not so crucial. Still, it would be awesome to have a fully finished costume. whooooo, go me!

Gotten quite a bit of knitting done on non-blue things, too, owing to the fact that I got a particuarly stubborn sunburn at Live 8 and haven't done much besides wear as little clothing as possible and knit. Byron's PoA Gryff scarf is 3 stripe sets from being done, and I washed two scarves (though they've been refusing to dry on the carpeted floor, the bastards). I panicked at my lack of sock yarn on Monday and, since it was a national holiday and the LYS (a lovely little place called Elegant Needles, definitely stop by if you're ever in the Fingerlakes region) was closed, wound up with a skein of candy-colored LB Magic Stripes from Hancock Fabrics. It's certainly not what I'm used to </snob>, but I was in withdrawal and it's tiding me over nicely 'til I'm back in the city communing with my already-wound balls of Koigu.

Also got some cornflower blue Cotton-Ease at 25% off to make a tank top, probably a slightly modified Soleil, for the maternal unit. So much for not knitting in blue yarn.

And, to top things off, I've officially gone down another pants size. Go me indeed!

Lauren posted at 2.59 on 07.06.05 comments (0)