That spring it be sprung

Not only is this stuff growing everywhere, but when I got home from work it was light enough to take pictures outside. I feel like everything is just a little bit easier and more possible all of a sudden.

I also kind of feel like tongue-kissing every member of the agency that made the decision to change the clocks early. But that could be spring fever talking.

That's five seconds I'll never get back

In my office building, the lights above the elevator doors turn red if the elevator is going down and white if the elevator is going up. Everyone knows this.

So on the way up today, just as the (clearly white-lit) doors were closing, someone stuck their arm in and asked if the elevator was going down. The guy already in the elevator with me barked that the elevator was going up.

Then, as if the sharp tone wasn't enough, he started to sigh and roll his eyes and say 'God. Really.' Over and over again. When I made accidental eye contact with him, he said (without a hint of irony): I just lost five seconds because of that.

I know now that the proper response was: you've already lost another twenty bitching about it. Move on. Unfortunately, I'm not that quick.

This did teach me a little lesson. The next time I find myself infuriated over a momentary delay, I should make a concerted effort to remain patient and calm. Because otherwise I would be a gigantic douchebag.

Spring is in the air

...So it's a perfect time to be knitting a worsted-weight wool and mohair sweater, no?



That's right - I finally started Wicked. After blocking, my gauge was still a tiny bit off (4.75 stitches per inch vs 4.5). If my gauge were correct, I would be right between sizes. I figure slightly too big is cozy, while slightly too small means everyone would get an eyeful of my squidgier bits, so I decided to knit the next size up. That means I started with 100-some stitches and am gradually increasing to 300-some before splitting off the arms.

Now that's a whole lot of stitches (shawl knitters, feel free to scoff and remind me that some shawls have thousands of stitches in a row at some point), but really I'm a sock knitter, and socks have an entirely manageable number of stitches in a row.

I try not to think about it too hard, because if I do, I start worrying that I don't have the fortitude for sweater knitting. It doesn't have the architectural excitement of turning a heel, and it certainly doesn't have the thrilling variegated colors that keep me frantically knitting socks just to see what color comes next. Sometimes I look at Wicked and think "You mean, I've got to keep doing this same exact thing until I make an entire sweater?" Then I look at it and think "DUDE, I'm knitting a fucking sweater. How awesome is that?"

I've also been consoling myself with the Yarn Harlot's first book. Besides penning my new favorite phrase "trust your inner compass - it points to yarn", she also mentions that the average sock has something like 17,000 stitches. A pair, by extension, has close to 34,000. If I've knit socks, surely I can knit this. I will soldier on.

Plus, I'm a little bit smitten with my yarn. What with the stunning colors sock yarns come in, I tend to forget how much I like solid-colored Lambs Pride. Being just barely spun (or plied or whatever the term is) makes the yarn vary a tiny bit in width and it has a smooth, almost silky, but still very fibery sheen to it. You really feel like you're working with honest to goodness wool when you touch it, if that makes sense?

And there's just a hair or two of dark green/almost black twisted in with the apple green which gives the color more depth, and the mohair gives it a bit of additional texture. Really nice stuff. Unfortunately, this yarn has magical camera-defying abilities that prevent me from capturing its true deliciousness. Trust me, in real life, it's much prettier.

However, it is utter crap for train knitting. The mohair drifts off in a violently green cloud all around me that instantly clings to everything in a ten-foot radius. This hasn't entirely stopped me from subway knitting with it, but feeling bad about the exploding green hairball in my lap does take some of the joy out of it.

Meanwhile, my neighbors have this in the middle of their yard.



I keep looking around to make sure there isn't an old person lying crumpled in the bushes somewhere. Thus far, no old people, but the snow hasn't completely melted yet...

This is how things are going, take two

My laundry continues to teach me important lessons. Unfortunately, I’m a slow learner, so it’s pretty much the same lesson it tried to teach me last time. That laundry is one persistent little fucker.

So anway, I was trying to multi-task last night, doing laundry and tidying up my kitchen. The laundry did get done, and the kitchen did get tidied, but while I was making myself dinner, I also noticed that I’d stashed the laundry detergent in the fridge in my hurry to tidy everything up.

When you chop wood, chop wood. And when I do laundry, by God, one of these days I will learn to give it my full attention.

Then today, after an 90 minute-long 6:45 a.m. conference call, I found myself milliseconds away from hitting send on this email.

See if you can spot the problem...

Dear XXX,

Please approve the following access request:

Blah blah, boring technical details, blah blah, more details, blah blah blah.

Warm retards,
Ariel

Yup. Warm retards. I’m pretty sure the director of training for all our European offices wouldn’t have found that nearly as funny as I did.

The knitting is going rather better than either the work or the housekeeping, if somewhat more slowly. I finished swatching for Wicked (I even did it in the round, as it will be knit in the round), then virtuously washed and blocked my swatch. If I ever get out of the office today, I get to go home and measure my (washed-and-blocked) swatch to see if I’m getting gauge.

Oh, by the way, did I mention that I swatched in the round, then washed AND blocked my swatch? The Goddess of Gauge cannot fault me on this one. If I have a gauge disaster, it's all on her.

Change is good

I'm rocking the socks on two circulars.

Good times at a good yarn

My local yarn shop is about a half hour away by foot, and today couldn't have been a better day for the walk. The weather says it's in the mid-40s but my handy outdoor thermometer is hovering around 60. Either way, it's a welcome break from the rain, sleet and ice we've been having around here.

I had two goals for the yarn shop jaunt: one, get a &$^#ing size 9 needle to start swatching Wicked and two, to see if by chance they had any more Sunshine Yarns in Daffodil, or even a solid yarn of similar gauge in a complementary color. I'm desperately afraid I'm going to run out of yarn mid-way through the second Sunshine Yarns Jaywalker. When I asked the nice lady at the counter (who bore a suspicious resemblance to this blogger) about it, she reassured me that she's always had a ton left over when using that yarn. Given the number of socks she seems to knit, this was considerably reassuring.

I exercised impressive restraint while I was there, given A Good Yarn's sock yarn selection. I only bought needles. Though it's possible I also bought two size 2 circulars to finally try out knitting socks on two circs, in addition to the size 9 for Wicked. I've been ogling the Leaf and Tendril socks in Socks Soar on Two Circular Needles, and I believe their time has almost come.

Then as I was leaving, I had another knitblogger-in-real-life sighting. Of all the people in the entire world to assure me that I had sufficient quantities of Sunshine Yarns, she would be the one.

So did I say anything? Even 'hi, love your yarn'? No. Why? Because I'm a gigantic pussy.

Sometimes you just can't think of a clever title

So I've been frustrated with school recently and have expended rather a lot of energy whining about the lameness of library science classes. Example A is one of my textbooks (Evaluating Information): This book is, basically, a very good undergraduate text describing how to formally evaluate social science and statistical research. Which would be fine were I not in GRADUATE SCHOOL.

At one point, the condescending pricks concerned authors actually wrote this:

This has been a long chapter. Without some prior knowledge about something called experimental design, you probably found the chapter complex. As more and more details were presented, you may have lost sight of the overall logic.

Seriously? For the record, the chapter was not particularly complex. Further, for almost $800 a credit I expect to be challenged on occasion. And failing that, they could at least flatter my ego.

What was that? Oh, you're here to see knitting? Well, this is what I've been up to:



Stash enhancement, swatching for Wicked (not pictured due to technical difficulties), swatching for the Somewhat Cowl, and starting the second Sunshine Yarns Jaywalker.

The new stash yarn is Patons Soy Wool Stripes, and it fell into my basket (along with three of its friends) while my newbie knitter friend Kelley and I were poking around at Big Chain Craft Store. I've never used it before, and I'm not sure how it will knit up. But it's made out of soy. And wool. And it makes stripes.

How cool is that?



I also started swatching for Wicked, having learned my lesson with the Experimental Socks. I plan to appease the vengeful Goddess of Gauge with a properly knit, washed and blocked swatch this time. And every single other time I knit something that needs to be a particular size.

This excellent plan was rather more time-consuming than it should have been due to my continuing denial about how tight I actually knit. I started the swatch with the needle size recommended in the pattern, but several rows into the swatch, it became clear that my knitting had the approximate drape and flexibility of a suit of armor.

Since I was at Big Chain Craft Store anyway and I don't have any circular needles of the proper length for Wicked, I figured I might as well buy the next needle size up. Of course I didn't actually remember what size needles I was currently using, so I had to employ the very precise "hold your needles up to the package and guess" method.

The size 8 circulars certainly LOOKED bigger than the needles I was currently using, so I bought them. And I'm sure these shiny new size 8s will look very nice with the other two size 8 circular needles I already own, but size 8s will do fuck-all for Wicked since I need a size 9.

Kristy asked if I was making the short or long-sleeve version, and I'm planning to make the long-sleeved one. Once I get a goddamn size 9 circular needle. Sigh.

Incidentally, "making wicked" is now one of my favorite euphemisms, briefly replacing "making the beast with two backs" in my affections. So this week hasn't been a total loss.

Meanwhile, I've also been swatching some Elsebeth Lavold Silky Wool from the stash. I've only used this yarn to knit lace, so I wasn't sure how it would knit up in plain stockinette. It's quite pretty, and my (washed-and-blocked) gauge is bang-on for the Somewhat Cowl.

Just one little problem...This is how it looks on size 4 needles, at 6 stitches per inch.



I'm pretty sure I can't get it any tighter, but it seems too loose for a sweater.

Have other people made solid items out of this yarn? How solid is solid enough for a sweater? How do you figure it out?

It's a freakishly warm day here, so it's really the perfect time to saunter over to my local yarn shop for yet more sock yarn size 9 needles. Wicked will not elude me for much longer.

P.S. I was tremendously comforted to hear that Kristy, too, has accidentally walked into someone else's apartment. But stupid Blogger reveals nothing of Kristy's identity, preventing me from telling her so myself. So Kristy, do you have a blog? You're really too funny not to...