Helloooo, Out There!

With such a long absence from posting, I'd better have news right? Well, I actually do have good news. My hubby has started a new job! It was a long (i.e., two months!) interview process, but the end result was good. He has been working at his new job for two weeks now and we are still scrambling to adjust our lives to suit his new schedule. He is still taking evening classes towards an MBA and my teaching load is really heavy right now, we are stretched pretty thin. Even though we're super busy, this came at a perfect time and in general we are less worried about things.

On a less positive note, I have been furloughed, which means that by definition I am supposed to work 10% less and get 10% less pay. In reality, the stupid furlough has created twice as much work as usual and decreased moral among faculty, staff, and students at California universities to basement levels. The administrators made sure to give themselves raises so they are unaffected, while our raises have been indefinitely suspended (never to return, I'm sure). That means no cost of living raises, nada, nothing, PLUS a 10% decrease. Can you tell I'm bitter? Honestly, I love being a professor, but I do feel pretty betrayed by this whole situation. I try not to think about it too much and just keep working along.

I haven't photographed anything in quite awhile (including poor RJ, who needs an 18-month photo taken this weekend!), but will try to catch up this weekend so I can post some actually knitting content. In the meantime I'll post a photo of RJ playing in the sandbox her grandpa and grandma made for her in Wisconsin. I love her cute sweater, which sadly was purchased, not handmade. However, after our visit I must have really inspired my mom to pick up the needles and she has been knitting like a crazy person. RJ now has 5 (yes 5!) new sweaters knit by her grandma. My mom needs some new projects, so I'm downloading some cute dress patterns and buying a bunch of yarn for her from Knitpicks. If anyone knows of some cute toddler patterns (12-24 months or so), please share them!

Back From Vacation

I am just one day back from a two week vacation on my parent's farm in Wisconsin. RJ really enjoyed being on the farm and running wild in wide open spaces. For me it was great to see my family again, both close family and extended family. I was shocked to realize that it had been 4 years since I've been home! My plan is to visit for at least two weeks every summer, but life sometimes gets in the way of even a good plan.

Speaking of plans, my plan for the blog was to post about my upcoming vacation and then post one or two times while one vacation. Unfortunately, my summer work schedule (I have 3 masters students finishing up) really got in the way of that plan. I even spent a portion of my vacation reading theses. The good news is that the last student will defend this Friday (woohoo!), so after that my summer schedule will free up a lot. That will give me a few weeks to finish some work projects and prepare for the fall semester. I am crossing my fingers that I will also get some good crafting time as well.

I did manage to do some knitting while on vacation. Although RJ has become quite active, her grandparents spent a lot of time playing with her which freed up some time for me. I will post soon with details on my latest projects, but as a preview I finished one project that involved the yarn on the left (the orange, yellow, and white colorway) and the plain yellow in the bottom photo. I also got my mom hooked on knitting dishcloths, so I feel like it was a worthwhile crafting vacation. My only regret is that I never got the chance to check out the local yarn shop (I'm not absolutely certain, but I think it is Good Thyme Knitting in Medford, WI). My aunt said that they have some lovely handspun and dyed yarns. Hopefully they will still be around next year!

Daydreaming

When I was a kid, probably around 9 or 10 years old, I would go through the Spiegel Catalog page by page, deciding which items I would buy if I were rich. We were what you might describe as "dirt poor" while I was growing up, so this was quite a feat of daydreaming even with Spiegel. You're probably asking yourself, "why Spiegel?" which isn't really known for being a luxury catalog. Living in a rural area before there was the internet (for the youngins out there, yes such a time did exist), Spiegel was the most posh catalog I had access to. It was so much more tony than Sears or JCPenney's. I had not even heard of Saks, Niemans, or Nordstroms, and Macy's was something related to the Thanksgiving Day parade, not a place to shop. Anyway, it turns out that if I had lots of money I would pretty much buy everything in the catalog. Afterall, you just never know when you'll need a juicer or aerobic shoes. Once I eventually did start to earn a bit more money, I did not buy out the Spiegel catalog. Honestly, I'm fairly certain I've never ordered a thing from them. I still do daydream about what I would buy if I were rich, though. I can tell you that my craft closet would have to get a lot bigger to accommodate all the silk, cashmere, and merino wool.

Back in the real world, I am making dishcloths for RJ's teachers. I want to give them each a cloth for Christmas, along with some nice soap. Because she is in the infant/toddler room, she has about 8-9 teachers, so I need to get moving on these. Here is the first one I started, which is now nearly finished. Frustratingly, I ran out of both the red and the ecru yarn. I was able to find more red, but I still need to hunt down some more (Ravelry, here I come!).

Getting A Jump on the Holidays

I recently told my husband that he is lucky to be with me during these harsh economic times. I come from many, many generations of poor folk, so if there's one thing I know how to do it's live on the cheap. For example, you can eat for a week on a carton of milk, a bag of potatoes, a dozen eggs, and some veggies from the garden and it costs around $10. With our current single-income household situation, I am thinking that homemade gifts are going to be the way to go this year for Christmas. Since I love crafting, making complex plans, and hunting down the materials for projects, this is one area that doesn't seem so much like a sacrifice as a strategy-shift. However, with my fall class load I need to get a lot of gifts done this summer. I've been active lately on Ravelry trying to get some bargains on yarn for gift projects and I've posted some things to destash to generate some extra revenue to buy all the supplies I need (if you're interested, take a look here; anything in my stash is fair game not just those things in the trade section, so just send me a message on Ravelry with an offer if something looks good; I am also open to trades).

I am happy to report that I have my first gift done for holiday season 2009! This is for my brother, who lives in frigid Wisconsin and loves the flexibility of a gaiter. It can be worn as a neckwarmer or a hat, depending on what you need at the moment. This used up a fair amount of yarn that I frogged from the World's Ugliest Scarf (if you're thinking the scarf didn't look that bad, I assure you that in real life it was way too wide and the colors looked odd together). The gaiter is quite warm and soft and looks pretty nice on as well.






Yarn: Lion Wool-Ease Chunky in the color Willow

Pattern: Modified version of Four-In-One Gaiter from One Skein Wonders

Changes: I used chunky yarn instead of worsted weight. I tried to use worsted weight, but it seemed like it would be way too tight and I thought the chunky would be better for the bitter Wisconsin winter. I also made the pattern longer so it would cover more of his head as a hat and would fold over as a gaiter. I bound off on a really large needle (US 15) so that it would flare out a bit at the bottom.

Yardage: about 3/4 of a skein (114 yards)

Needle: US 10

Time: Started November 2008 and finished June 2009

An Unseasonable FO

I finished these warm, woolly fingerless gloves, just in time for the hot season here in SoCal. I know, good timing right? Now I'm thinking I should start my bulky wool hoodie. I'm only half kidding, since starting it now would mean I might finish it in time for Christmas. The only thing stopping me is that I am spending two weeks in Wisconsin in July, and that project would be way too bulky to take along. I will probably take along a project for my light, airy Jaeger Trinity. I was working on a simple top from a Schachenmayr pamphlet, but I am having trouble getting gauge with size 3s, and the idea of going down to a size 2 needle for a whole sweater gives me the willies. So, I found a couple new pattern options that I will swatch. I will post about that soon. Anyway, here are the particulars of the fingerless mittens:

Yarn: Lorena DK, wool/acrylic blend
Pattern: Modified version of Fingerless Mittens from One Skein Wonders
Changes: I added quite a bit of length to the cuff, and a little to the thumb and hand. I wanted to have more coverage and to use more yarn.
Yardage: about 1 skein (125 yards)
Needle: US 7
Time: Started July 2008 and finished April 2009





I bought this yarn at a craft store in Iowa City, IA while in grad school about 12 years ago. The store is probably long since closed, actually. So far, I've used the yarn to make a vest, a hat, and now a pair of mitts to match the hat. Honestly, I've gotten more than my money's worth out of this yarn. Despite my best efforts, I still have a small ball of this yarn left that I really should just toss away and be done with it. However, now that I have the mitts and hat and I am thinking I need a matching scarf. Perhaps I will start the Ribbed Mini-Scarf, and see if I have enough yarn, or just the flower part of the Flower Scarf (Ravelry links). My frugal nature refuses to let me waste any yarn and my vision for a matching set is taking hold.

Another Anouk

JennC from The Carlson Zoo asked who was the intended recipient for the new Anouk I mentioned in a previous post. When I finished my first Anouk recently, I said I would like to make another one in fall colors. So to answer Jennifer's question, it's for RJ but as you can see I did not use fall colors or fall yarn. I just used up some more kitchen cotton I had laying around in colors that looked nice together. What can I say, the pattern is addictive and the cotton is easier to work with in summer.



It may appear that I am knitting too much for RJ and not enough for anyone else, but when I post my newest FOs things will look a bit more balanced. I'm also working on a project for a Christmas gift (fingerless gloves for my youngest brother) and may even start a new sweater for myself: Sunkist in yellow cotton (ravelry link). I do love the more relaxed feel of summer, don't you?

Good Yarn Karma

Thanks for all the well wishes regarding getting RJ into her own bed. After a week of working on it we are at RJ=1, parents=0. I think some significant teething pain is complicating matters, but there is probably a good measure of manipulation going on. Either way, I have been outmaneuvered by my 15-month-old. Damn her cuteness!



I just want to pass along some good yarn karma to Karen (aka Auntyk) on Ravelry. Actually, this story starts with a kind gift from Rachel (aka cupcakegirl on Ravelry) who started to knit something for RJ, then when she ran out of time decided to just give me the yarn, which was some lovely, soft, peach Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino. RJ's favorite yellow hat this past winter was knit from this same yarn, so I figured a sweater for next winter in the same yarn would be good. However, I didn't have enough for a sweater so I searched on Ravelry and found that Karen had three skeins she wanted to get rid of IN THE SAME DYELOT! Yes, miracles do happen. As if that weren't wonderful enough, when I contacted her, she offered to send me the yarn without any payment. (Believe me, I offered to at least pay postage, but she refused.) I was very touched by her kindness and wanted to share my wonderful experience and pass along some good karma to Karen. Knitters really are the most wonderful people!