Happy New Year!

Dearies,

Worry not: everyone is happy, healthy, and well chez Wollgut, and I very much hope the same is true for you and yours and that you have had a splendid holiday season.

May I explain the long blog hiatus in just three bullet points?

--It happened: I'm now Dr. Wollgut. It hasn't sunk in yet! The writing, editing, revising, defending... it's all a blur.
--I'm hugely, enormously, gigantically pregnant, and still have three more weeks to waddle around on elephant feet before the Bean is scheduled to arrive.
--Did I ever mention that last semester I worked not my usual part-time teaching job but had (and still have) a full-time appointment and had accepted an additional part-time teaching gig?

The last seven months have left me breathless and my knitting needles idle. But the past ten days or so--during my winter break, which in January will transition seamlessly into maternity leave--I've been obsessed with knitting, and I have several little things drying on my blocking board. Photo shoot and blog update are to follow! It feels awesome to be back. :)

Happy New Year!

(Moi, on Christmas Day.)

Bean Prep

Howdy! I have great news: carpal tunnel syndrome is on its way OUT, and I started knitting again. Hurrah! I still have to wear a brace at night--apparently I sleep with my head on my left wrist--but typing is no longer as painful, and knitting isn't much of a problem at all. Still, I'm taking it easy (the knitting, that is; I don't have a choice but edit the dissertation like a maniac, and that won't change until my November 5 deadline), but slow progress is better than no progress. After two months of a little bit of knitting here and there I finished a baby blanket:

The pattern is Jared Flood's Tweed Baby Blanket, and there's nothing I don't love about the blanket. Love the garter stitch, love the fan-and-feather border, love the yarn (Knit Picks' City Tweet DK), love the colors, love everything. I had dreaded picking up 440 stitches and making an i-cord bind-off, but neither one was terrible.

Today the third trimester starts (?!?!!), and there isn't much evidence other than my growing belly that soon there's going to be a baby with us. So I made my first baby purchase. Just to have something to look at. I've been staring at these all day long:

So cute! Whether or not we'll use these is besides the point. It was an impulse purchase, but since the pair cost less than a fancy espresso drink--which I no longer buy--I don't feel bad about it.

And now that I'm so close to being completely done with grad work and decided not to do anything but knit baby clothes in December, I placed a huge order with Webs to have everything ready for a post-defense knitting marathon. You heard right: a marathon! I'll be in pajamas all day long, lounge on the sofa, listen to NPR, and knit knit knit. How about it? I've been daydreaming about December for weeks, especially once it became obvious that I wouldn't be able to make it to Rhinebeck this weekend. There's just too much "footnote fiddling" to take a weekend off... *sigh*

Here's recent me (already three weeks old and four pounds behind):

Ten on Tuesday

10 things in my fridge? That many?!

Let's see...

1. Butter, unsalted
2. Greek yoghurt (cherry, low fat)
3. Milk, 2% organic, skim conventional (for moi, for Hubs)
4. Leeks (CSA box)
5. Kale (CSA box)
6. Ketchup (Trader Joe's organic: the best of the best of the best of ketchups!)
7. Condiments of various age and origin
8. Fat free soy coffee creamer (sounds weird, but is so good)
9. A couple of lonely eggs
10. Ratatouille, left-over from Sunday dinner (all organic, every ingredient [sans olive oil] from our CSA box. Yum yum yum)

More interesting, the two things in my freezer:

1. Belgium chocolate frozen yoghurt
2. Pumpkin ice-cream


Most interesting, because very unusual, the contents of the oven:

Apfelkuchen: a cookie sheet full of apple pie (sweet yeast dough, apples, raisins, almonds, streusel)

Thank you, Carole!

I Got Mail!

International mail at that. And look what was in the big, padded envelope: a hand-sewn bag, made specifically to my liking by DW! Thank you, danke, merci, and kiitos!! I won DW's giveaway of one of her farmer's market bags, and, folks, it is beautiful! Don't know if I want to throw dirty 'tatoes in there or juicy heirloom tomatoes. DW, you made my day!

So much so that I thought it's time for a blog post. It's been two months, and the reason for the long hiatus bears the evil name of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. Either one of two causes is to blame: (1) dissertation or (2) pregnancy (personally I suspect that a combination of the two was at work).

As to (1): As perhaps mentioned before (ha ha), I had a busy summer. I typed, deleted, and typed some more for about twelve hours a day, every day for two months, but at the end I did finish the darn D. In mid-August I submitted the sucker, and while I'm still in the process of revising it, the dissertation is for all intents and purposes done. The defense is scheduled for November, and I'm in blissful denial about the details. In any event, my left wrist gave up just a few days before I turned in the opus magnum.

And (2)? Things are going really really well. The Bean is the male kind (it's a boy it's a boy it's a boy! Hurrah hurrah!!), and he and I have already made it past the halfway point. Not that evidence was needed, but the ultrasound pictures clearly show that the boy is absolutely adorable. A complete cutie. A couple of weeks ago I started noticing his movements, and by now he's advanced to handing out pretty solid kicks. Even Hubs can feel the boy! The only downside to pregnancy: increased amounts of fluids, which in my case caused CTS. Meh.

Because of CTS I can neither
(1) type nor
(2) knit.

Now you understand why this blog has taken the route of Sleeping Beauty and is temporarily hibernating. Not being able to knit for baby really sucks. Not blogging (or emailing!) sucks, too.

And now you need to forgive me, but that's as much typing I can do in one day... I'll leave you with photo a yours truly...

Surprise Baby!

Quick recap... here's photo of the Baby Surprise Jacket I finished a week ago...

Cute, eh? And soooo soft and cuddly. I asked you to guess who it's for, but no one dared to make a wild guess (chickens!). Since I can't keep mum about it much longer I'm just gonna blurt it out, right after I go through a list of candidates.

'Cause candidates there are many! Besides three tiny ones born to friends just recently, there is big time baby news in the family.

First, there's a November baby on its way. Proud mamma: my step-sister.

Second, a boy is arriving in December. Surprised papa: my little brother (barely out of his own diapers! school).

Third, a January baby is also on order. Its tentative name: Beanie. Its over-joyous, over-the-moonish parents are... drum rolls... champagne cork pops...: moi and the Hubs. We! Us! Beanie parents! YAY!!!!

That's three cousins all being born in the span of three months! My poor father, who says he doesn't much like kids (which we don't believe, since he is a great dad to us), is a bit overwhelmed by the prospect of triple grandfatherhood. Tee hee. I, on the other hand, couldn't be happier--for my brother, my step-sister, but most of all for us! The Beanie--who got its name at the first ultrasound, where it looked like a two centimeter long lima bean--has long been awaited, mostly in talk. When we got down to business, so to speak, we didn't expect that the Bean would turn up within just a few months. We found out in May, and what I remember from our England trip most vividly are the frequent stops to Boots to get more pregger tests: I successfully peed on sticks in London, Oxford, York, and Manchester!

Perhaps now you can guess why there wasn't much knitting or blogging in June. 'Cause I was in the bathroom, thank you very much. Morning sickness translated in my case into afternoon-evening-night sickness, although it's gotten much better over the last couple of weeks. Now I throw up only at midnight. Progress!

I'm totally fascinated by the pregnancy changes. I mean, you hear this stuff about weird appetite and the whole morning sickness thing, and it's all true (creamed herring bites, anyone? Some OJ with that?). But the craziest thing is my sense of smell, which especially during the first two months was über-human: I could smell California from here. Now that I'm in my second trimester things are returning to normal. I suppose this will change again once there's a bump to carry in front of me. (Hel-lo bump.... where are you?)

Good night now. The Beanie needs sleep. 'Cause this week it's growing from "medium peach" to "small grapefruit" size--and that's a lot of growing!

(Oh... the cardi? Yes, for the Beanie. Can't you tell? It's green! Like green lima beans!)

Happy Anniversary!

From my carrel in the library I have a splendid view of Sage Chapel, Cornell's nonsectarian chapel. Two years ago, minus an hour, I was getting ready to walk into Sage for a pretty special event:

Happy second anniversary, Hubs!

(More news on the BS[J] to follow!)

Baby Surprise!

Guys Gals, you are awesome! Thanks so much for encouraging me to keep spinning... I'll do my best--as soon as it cools off around here.

In the meantime I proudly present a FO, Elizabeth Zimmermann's Baby Surprise Jacket, made of wool, not cotton, because I take EZ's advice to heart (cf. her intro to "Some Babies' Things" in Knitter's Almanac). First the obligatory before-origami-moment shot:

Next a post-surgery shot:

And a close-up shot, since garter stitch is so pretty:

The BSJ really is an adorable little thing. I opted for an assymmetrical front, as knitted by Ysolda (instructions here). I meant to knit the jacket in a newborn size, but my choice of yarn--delicious Madelinetosh Tosh DK, which isn't a proper DK weight but tends towards worsted--resulted in a bigger jacket. It sure is too big for Georgie, the family monkey:

Fortunately it's not Georgie for whom the jacket is intended. Now you may ask, which cutie is gonna wear this super soft, super cuddly, super pretty cardigan? Are you asking yet? Well, I'll let you guess!(!!) More later... :)

Ich spinne!

...which translates into "I spin" as well as "I'm crazy," and after this weekend I really do feel the two are related.

Last Friday I went to (one of) Ithaca's LYS, Hickory's Knitting Etc. to get some buttons to finish a soon-to-be revealed FO. Hickory is having a super sale; everything in stock must go. Now, the Hubs went with me, but only once I had promised him that we'd pick out buttons, not touch any yarn, and thus be out of there in no time (that is, with enough time left to go to the soccer store and buy him a FIFA 2010 soccer ball). I do like to stick to my word, and after he (!) chose buttons we went straight to the register, next to which sat a basket full of discounted roving and one lonely drop spindle. Since roving isn't exactly yarn I had permission to touch, and once I touched... etc. etc... (fill in the blanks).

Fast forward to Saturday morning. It's 4:30, and it is so incredibly stinkin' hot and humid in the apartment I can't sleep. The windows are open, the fan is on high, we're on top of the covers, and there are no more clothes that could be taken off; still, I am miserable. Out of bed with me and, perhaps insufficiently dressed, onto the porch. Since I was wide awake I thought, what the heck, it's so hot that playing with a little bit of wool couldn't possibly make me feel any more uncomfortable. Wait, I don't actually know what to do with roving or a spindle, let alone with the two together, but I'm sure there's a YouTube video out there that can teach me how to spin. Our computers are on campus, but let's not forget about iPhones. Why not teach myself how to spin by watching an amateurish YouTube video on my cell phone screen in the wee hours of a brutally hot day? Brilliant idea, right?

Two and half hours later, with an empty iPhone battery and woolen fluff all over myself, this is what I had accomplished:

Please don't judge me too harshly, dear spinning reader, I know my results are pitiful. Blame the heat, the size of the screen, the quality of the video instruction, the early morning hour, my sleepy head, my absolute inexperience... My first try at spinning wasn't fun. Or relaxing. It was painful and angering. Should I ever touch the spindle again I promise I will get better, but in the meantime I think that spinning is crazy, that to spin is crazy, and that spinners--forgive me--are crazy, too.

Baltic No More

Did you too get an email from Knit Picks on July 1 that advertised a "Baltic Lace Kit"? A beautiful, beautiful lace shawl with all the whistles and bells but at a super duper low price? I fell in love instantaneously, but since I tend to brood over potential purchases for at least a week before making them (call it cost-benefit analysis: I first need to silently contemplate what's already in the stash and, if item still has my attention and wants to be purchased, I mull over the idea loudly in the presence of the Hubs, and, if there's no veto from that end, I sleep over the whole issue for a couple of nights, and, if I still remember that there's something I want, I go ahead and make the purchase), the Baltic Lace Kit had disappeared out of my cart when I went to Knit Picks today to hit the BUY button. Where once there was a Baltic Lace Kit (like, one week ago), none was today.

So I talked to Jasmine at Customer Service, and she said the kit was so incredibly popular it sold out within days. Zut alors !

I can't even show you a picture of the beauty: the link in aforementioned email no longer works.

(And this after yesterday's disappointment that Espania kicked some German booty and made it into the World Cup final, whereas Jogi's boys will play for third place only. Buäääh!!!)

Oh--and have I mentioned it's 103 degrees (39.5 C) in update New York and our summer sublet is not air-conditioned and even the library--usually an ice-box--is beginning to get hot?

*headdesk*

Ten Ways to Celebrate Summer

1. Eat yourself silly on fresh fruit, preferably after you picked it yourself.

2. Sit on the porch at night and watch lightning bugs. Can you count the stars?

3. Enjoy the Farmers' Market--the produce, the food, the crafts, the people.

4. Stay near water. Any water.

5. Go for a hike.

6. Attend a wedding.

7. Try a new ice-cream flavor.

8. Always pick up after yourself when picnicking outdoors. (Yes, that is a way to celebrate summer.)

9. Learn the names of plants and flowers around you.

10. Watch the World Cup. :)

Thanks, Carole, for Ten on Tuesday!

Schlaaaaaaaand!*

If you are following the World Cup you know that Germany's was an epic win. If not, let me tell you: Germany played an amazing game against Argentina this morning. It was outrageously, wow-ly, extraordinarily, insanely exciting and ended with a completely unexpected 4:0. (Unexpected because... well... four goals!) After last week's game against England, which was also crazily awesome, I didn't dare hope for such a spectacular game, let alone a 4:0 win. Total awesomeness.

We watched the game at our usual breakfast place, along with mostly Argentina fans:

Since Germany's fans were in the minority we yelled and screamed and cried extra-loudly, with the result that my voice is gone now.

Hey, and since I went out to the porch this morning to photograph our Fußball jerseys (see above) I also took photos of Multnomah:

Since it's too small for me to wear, and since I don't want to gift it (because I love the yarn: Alchemy Yarns' Juniper), I will unravel it. (This shouldn't keep you from making a cute little Multnomah yourself: it's a pretty pattern, well written, etc. etc., it just isn't for me.)

And now... gotta run and see how Spain and Paraguay are doing.

*Schlaaaaaand=the increasingly popular Facebook soccer nick name for Deutschland.

Ithaca: June in a Flash

Goodness! Seriously. A blink ago it was June 6. And now it's the 4th-of-July weekend. Time swooshes by especially fast when one's busy, that's the lesson learned in June.

We traded in our Beantown residence for a summer abode in Gorges Ithaca, New York. We went to grad school here, and the Hubs was asked back to teach math camp to kids who where math superstars in their respective colleges, where math, however, wasn't taught as rigorously as perhaps it should have been. These kids are now getting ready for prestigious grad schools, and to prepare them for what will no doubt be a very different academic setting, they participate in an 8-week super-intensive math program at Cornell. And the Hubs is one of their professors. The program is very, very, very intense; the students work extremely hard and are in class between 10 am and 11 pm every day, six days a week. The Hubs is in his office by 8 am and doesn't leave till 9:30 pm.

And moi? Well. I said I went to grad school here. Truth is, I'm still in grad school. I would have been done by now if I hadn't been given the opportunity to teach last year, but since I taught and published and yadda yadda, I didn't get my dissertating act together and. Am. Not. Done. Yet. So, the Hubs' schedule suits me well: I'm also up on campus each morning at 8, go to my library carrel from which I have the most amazing view of campus, the town, and Cayuga Lake, and write like a maniac till the library closes at 9 pm. Then my brain usually is kaputt and I fall into bed and don't move a toe till the next morning.

Still. It's all very awesome. We love Ithaca and are so happy just being here (even if we don't have time to do anything, say, exciting: see any of the state parks, for instance, or bike around the lakes). I'm not complaining at all. It feels great to be productive, and I'm beginning to see the light at the end of the dissertation tunnel. (One. More. Chapter.) I'm a bit panicky about finishing; I thought I'd have another semester of fellowships but then the university where I taught last year offered me a full-time lecturing position for this coming year (Yay!!! Very exciting news!). Once I start teaching in September I will have zero time to dissertate. So, the pressure is on. Pressure in Ithaca is totally fine, though. (Pressure in Boston usually ends in back pain, or so I noticed earlier this spring.)

And now, can you guess what the knitting chez Wollgut is doing? It's taking a summer snooze. It went on vacation without me. It's probably at your house. While traveling in May I managed a tiny Multnomah shawlette, but I haven't had the time to block it or to take photos of it. It's hanging out with the yarn I optimistically brought along to make three sweaters (!) this summer (!!). Ha!

And that's all, folks. You have a splendid holiday weekend (should this weekend be a holiday for you). Enjoy watching the World Cup (I'm watching the really exciting games in my carrel, on a screen split between ESPN 3 and my last chapter) (Go, Podolski! Go, Özil! Schweini! Lahm! Müller!). And if you're neither into football or July 4th festivities, make yourself a perfect weekend in whichever way pleases you!

Berloxyork: May in a Minute

Without further ado, here are those long overdue photos of my trip to Berlin, Oxford, and York!

1. Berlin. Fabulous conference that kept me incredibly busy. I only got to see a couple of museums...

a) Pergamon Museum

b) Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe (aka Holocaust Memorial)

c) The brand new info center Topography of Terror

d) An exhibition of works by recent graduates of a textile institute the name of which I have forgotten. Preserved yarn, that's what I went to see:

2. Oxford. Impressive place. Would sell an arm and a leg to go on sabbatical there and spend a year at Bodleian Library...

3. York. We went to my BFF's wedding, and it was magical! Friends of ours brought their four-months old baby girl. My attention was divided between the bride and the baby. The famous York minster? We saw it from the outside.

Voilà. That was May in a minute. :)

408

That's the number of knitting blog entries I missed while I traveled around (half the) world, and back again, during the past 32 days. I may not be able to catch up entirely, but it's nice to be back online. Soon I'll share some photos of my travels (I make it sound much more exotic than it was in reality; I went to Germany and Great Britain, 's all. But there was a wedding, a graduation, a ghost-tour through one of England's finest cities, a discovery tour in the footsteps of Inspector Morse, a one-week vacation with the folks at a lakeside B&B, and, finally, the move into our temporary home in a house the locals call the Adams Family House... altogether splendid). So... see y'all soon! (I just got off the phone with my Southern MIL; forgive the "y'all", y'all!)

Rabbit Hole

Into which I fell sometime earlier this week. It's the end of the semester, which usually means chaos. This time it's chaos and then some. A lot of it is work related, but in addition to the normal stuff--writing and grading exams and planning last-minute review sessions to calm down the panicked kids--I've also been busy moderating at a couple of academic events (the task of which is both nerve-racking and delightful) and interviewing for a part-time teaching position for next year (I got it!). The week went by so fast I hardly had time to plan our trip to Europe, which starts on Tuesday. In fact, I know I'll be going to Oxford, I just don't know yet how and when I get there, or where I'll stay.

Yes, Oxford. I'm very excited! Many hours of watching the brilliant British detective series Inspector Morse made us want to visit the town. Between conferencing in Berlin in early May and attending my BFF's wedding in York at the end of May, the Hubs and I will have five days of real vacation. The Berlin and York bits are planned perfectly, only the "five days of real vacation" are as of yet unorganized. I don't mind so much; the conference organizers put me up in a fancy hotel, and for the wedding we will lodge at a posh B&B. Who cares if we spend our Oxford nights on the street? Turns out, the Hubs does. Wherever we end up, I'm sure it will be lovely. And the wedding will be absolutely wonderful. It's my BFF, she's getting married--need I say more? (My tiny complaint is that I'm losing her to Great Britain. What's up with that? Wonderful as he is, why does the groom need to be a Brit?)

Once we come back from Europe we're home for exactly three days before we move to upstate New York for the summer. The Hubs teaches Nerd Camp at Cornell (aka summer math school), and I will finish my dissertation. We sublet an apartment from a friend of a friend of a friend; it's a lovely place in one of the most gorgeous Victorian villas in town, with a porch, a beautiful garden, and easy access to a great walking trail. Although we're there to work, it will feel a little bit like vacation, or so we hope.

You guessed it already: lately it's been too busy here to knit anything at all. I'm hoping to get some peace and quiet on the plane (this is mental peace and quiet) to start something small. Perhaps Multnomah. Perhaps Damson. We'll see. I'm going to wind yarn tonight and wait till inspiration hits.

In case I don't get a chance to write before I leave: I wish y'all a happy May!

* * *

The following photo sums up today's attempts at trying to deal with Boston's drinking water supply crisis (read here for info):

Water? There's none left. Every store offered the same picture: empty shelves as far as the eye can see. We started drinking diet coke. I don't know how we will wash dishes with diet coke. Brush teeth with diet coke?

People Are Good

Yesterday was my husband's birthday. We took the afternoon off and had a fabulous time doing only those things he really wanted to do: Booksmith date, late lunch at Zaftig's, writing utensil shopping extravaganza, Happy Hour with good friends, late evening trip to the Apple store to play with the iPad, ice-cream in lieu of nightcap. It was a huge success; the Hubs was very happy, as he deserves to be. He is a very special man; we loves him sooooooooooooooo much (*armsstretchedoutwide*).

When we came home we found evidence of a miracle. Let me explain:

The Hubs' driver's license expired yesterday. He's known this for, uhm, several months. On Thursday at last he decided to go to the DMV (or Registry of Motor Vehicles, as it is called in Mass.). After all, having a valid driver's license is important this weekend, since we're expecting our favorite aunts to visit, and we'd like to drive them around. (In their car, naturally, as we don't have a car. If we had a car, he probably would have taken care of the license a wee bit earlier.)

So, the Hubs collected his three forms of ID and proof of residence, stuffed everything into the pocket of his fleece vest, and off he went on his bicycle. Now, in the past I caught him several times running around town with the zipper of said pocket unzipped, and I asked him on numerous occasions to please zip the darn thing, so that he wouldn't lose his wallet, phone, keys, and glasses. (If you're wondering about the vest: my husband is a mathematician. That makes him inseparable from his fleece vest. It's all he ever wears.) He swears he zipped the zipper, and yet, by the time he arrived at the DMV he had lost his passport.

Passport. Let's say it again. Pass-port. (He had brought it as one form of ID.)

Have I mentioned that we're going to Europe soonish? Like, next Tuesday?*

After the first emergency call to moi, the Hubs walked back the way he came to check streets and sidewalks for his passport. Nothing. He then researched how to get a new passport and how to get it fast. Four forms of ID are required, one of them a state issued driver's license. If you don't have that, you need to bring along two people who have known you for at least two years and who must sign an affidavit that you are who you claim you are. Because the Hubs started working in Boston almost exactly two years ago and the few people he's known that long are his boss, her secretary, and our crazy neighbors, and because he didn't want to drag either of them to Government Center, he really needed to get a new driver's license before applying for the expedited passport. (I, the wife, don't count as witness.)

So yesterday, on his birthday, he collected his three forms of ID and proof of residence, stuffed everything into the pocket of his fleece vest, zipped the zipper, and off he went on his bicycle. He waited for two hours, and voilà, he received... a paper slip. On which it read that it was not a valid license, but only a notification that he had applied for one and that the real license would be in the mail within seven days. He was dumbstruck. Seven days? (In Miss., the place of Hubs' origin and issuing state of his last license, you get the card on the spot.) Dumbstruck I said he was. Perhaps he was a little angry too. And a bit desperate about how to make it all work so that he would have a passport by the time he hit the airport.

We were going crazy for about one hour trying to figure out how to get the Hubs an appointment at the expedited passport office without a valid driver's ID. Then we postponed worrying so that we'd enjoy his birthday. Now I fast forward. Several hours later, slightly tipsy and full of ice-cream, we arrived home, opened the door, and found ... drum roll... his passport. In our entrance hall. Slipped there underneath the door. But how? By whom?

Folded into the passport was a police printout with the Hubs' data. I had speculated on Thursday that whoever finds the passport may turn it in to the police, and that the police surely were able to find out where we lived. But I was thinking like a German: at home everyone needs to register with the town of residence, and when we move from place A to place B we need to notify the registries of both places A and B. It's easy to track us down! (The Americans I've talked to think this is totally crazy and that it violates at least five constitutional rights. To me it makes perfect sense; I don't find anything odd about it at all.) Here, of course, records aren't updated. When the Hubs received his old driver's license he was still in college, and the address he provided was his parents' home address. The Hubs thus concluded that even if someone found the passport and dropped it off with the police, the only address that would show up was his parents' address in Mississippi.

Instead of arriving in Miss. per mail, the passport was hand delivered to our house in Mass.

Really, two miracles happened: First, someone found his passport, wanted to do good and took it to the police. (The miracle: People wanting to be good and going out of their way to help someone else with finding lost property!) Second, instead of doing this on Thursday, they waited just long enough so that by the time the police looked up the Hubs, he had already been to the DMV here and changed his address for the new license.

Ah, a true life story which it is no fib to end with "and they lived happily ever after," and all thanks to the kindness of strangers!


*That's a small lie added for effect. While I am leaving on Tuesday, the Hubs doesn't actually leave till a short while later.

Skew

Lana Holden would have won Elinor's Sock Design Contest if she hadn't published her Skew design already in the winter issue of Knitty. Skew is awesome. Like, Shut! Up! awesome. (I've heard this phrase on campus recently.)

Finally I finished my second Skew sock. (I also had to redo the upper leg of the first one, to make it longer.) It wasn't exactly a case of Second Sock Syndrome; it was an ugligan urgency that led me astray. But here it is, the finished pair:

The construction is just awesome awesome awesome. And I won't shut up about it! Awesome.

And so is the yarn. Koigu Painter's Palette Premium Merino, gifted by my MIL, is awesome. (My MIL, by the way, is awesome, too.) Because of these large feet of mine two skeins wouldn't have been enough, so I used the solid Koigu Premium Merino for the toe and short row/cuff section, and the gorgeously painted Palette for the main sock.

I modified the pattern to fit my feet; Lana has great tips on her blog to make Skew larger, and I listed the exact mods on my Rav project page.

And now off to finishing another WIP!

Evidence

I should say in defense of the ugligan that washing and blocking it has brought about change for the better, if only a little. The ugligan is no longer capital-letter-UGLY, rather, its ugliness is of the average sort. Here's evidence of ugliness, starting from least to most ugly.

The back is quite acceptable, if I may say so:

The side, too, is decent:

Partial front view elicits partial yuck response:

Full frontal. Well. Bless her heart!, they would say in the South, with hands covering their mouths, if they saw me like this:

That's Yuck meets Ugh, plus the urgent recommendation to start a diet.

I am hereby denouncing all items of upper body clothing that are held together or fastened at a single place that is right across or just above the chest, causing the rest of the garment to accentuate the unfortunate presence of a belly (itself the regrettable by-product of otherwise blissful consumption of ice-cream, soft cheese, breads and pasta, and, perhaps, alcohol) and, simultaneously, to cover the waist, which is, mind you, still there, and which has the important function of distracting from the hips. I shall furthermore stay away from shirts, blouses, cardigans, sweaters, etc., that end at the widest part of my body, i.e., the hips. Longer, yes. Shorter, perhaps. But right where this cardigan ends? No, ma'am.

If the cardigan had been longer, and if I had had enough yarn to make the button band seven centimeters wide, as called for by the pattern, instead of five centimeters, at which point I ran out of yarn, despite meeting yarn and gauge requirements, perhaps then I would have actually worn this thing. It was a lot of fun to knit. I feel I need to wear the cardigan in Berlin at least once when I go there in May because my mom gave me the yarn and pattern, but carrying a two-pound ugligan with me, when the luggage restriction is 25 pounds, just to show it to her...? I'll have to think about it. Photos may have to do. (She'd never wear it, otherwise I'd happily give the cardigan to her.)

One final remark: Even if this cardigan had been a perfect match for me, the yarn (tape/ribbon yarn, itself made of very fine strands and knit in a tube) would have driven me crazy eventually. Wearing it for as short a time as I did while taking photos, my hands, which admittedly are on the dry side, got caught six or seven times and I ended up with snags. Plenty of guys like this one:

Very annoying.

There. I shan't say another word about Ugligan. (I'll shed a tear in silence later. I really wanted this project to work out. *sigh*) (For more info: my Ravelry project page is here.)

PS: I like Yarnhog's idea of giving the cardigan to a skinny girl, since skinny girls get away with anything, but I doubt skinny girls, who can afford wearing fashionable skinny-girl things, would wear a purple cabled cardigan. I'll check. I'll ask my skinny, fashionable, 19-year-old students...

PPS: No ice-cream this weekend.

PPPS: Since I mentioned ice-cream, I must also mention that I'm back in the saddle, so to speak, riding the bike everywhere again, which makes me look less like the ice-cream pig that I am. Since it was cold and snowed a tiny bit yesterday morning, I had to wear a hat. Seeds is the first handknit hat that actually fits underneath a bicycle helmet. I was so thrilled I had the Hubs take a photo. You can see just a little bit of Seeds here (doesn't this also explains my choice of color?):

U.G.L.Y.

The cardigan ugligan is done.

Don't let the picture fool you; it's ugly. The proportions are totally off. It's too small and too big at the same time. It makes my arms look giant while covering my waist, thus I look like I'm just belly and arms. It's too narrow across my shoulders. It's unwearable. It's just... blah. Ugly. Yuck. It doesn't fit!

I'm very sad about this.

(Perhaps it will look different once it's dry. I washed the cardigan this morning and stretched it to give it some much-needed length. Now I just need to wait. Tick tock.)