Roller Coaster

I’m not sure what it is, but my emotions have been on bit of a roller coaster lately. And not just this past week. I know that some of the downs are being away from Ty, living at home, summer doldrums (despite the job), and things of that nature. But also I will occasionally have really good times, when I’m happy for no reason. Although I’m definitely happiest when I’m near Ty, or at least forget that he’ll be gone soon. Another big part of it is just being alone. Which I think I’ve already mentioned, but I miss all of the random people at school. And it’s weird, because I’m alone, but not necessarily by myself. My parents are at home, there are people on the train, people at work, etc, but I don’t have much time to be completely by myself, to have any privacy. Not that I need to do something private, but every once and a while it’s nice to relax and not have to think about anyone or anything but yourself.

I have three weeks until I go back to school, and I’ll finish up work a few days before then. Ty’s coming this weekend, and then again in two weeks. Andrea is leaving this weekend, and Claire’s leaving next weekend. Eliza and Zara will both be gone for a week, then back for a few days before school. The summer’s definitely ending, but I feel less like it is than a week ago, which is odd. I definitely think I’m ready for change, but kind of scared of this upcoming semester. I signed up for all science classes, and way too many credits. Ty wont be here, two of my other friends will be gone for the semester. I really want to get my SnB going this year, and do more with tech, but I’m afraid that I’ll have little time, and no motivation.

In happier news, my Starburst Shrug is coming along nicely. I won’t put up any pictures yet because I might actually submit it to knitty for the spring issue, I’ll definitely finish in time for that deadline. I think my peacoat is a bust. I still haven’t felted that piece, and now I kinda don’t want to. Though I still really want a peacoat. I’ll probably just by a cheap one somewhere this fall, before it gets too cold.

I ordered the yarn for my Working Diamonds sweater, and I also bought some more sock yarn, and managed to come up with a color chart for it too! I’m actually really excited to work with color, because I haven’t done anything more exciting than stripes so far. This next weekend I’m hoping to make my homemade umbrella swift, which seems much nicer than my knees. Although I’ll still be winding by hand, but I’ll save up for a ball winder someday. I just hate spending money on stuff like that when I can spend it on yarn.

August? Really?

Ok, so I still have a few days, but it’s coming! I’m both excited and shocked at its early arrival, despite the fact that it’s right on time. My presentation for work is on Thursday, and I think it’s actually coming along nicely. The slides at least. I’m sure that once I stand up there in front of all those people, I’ll blank. Hopefully no one will laugh at me if I bring a little note card up to help me if I need it. Friday, the first day of August, is the company summer outing. It sounds fun, mostly, but I’m not sure if I’m going. Being stuck at some place all day with few people I know, and lots of people I don’t doesn’t exactly sound like the most exciting thing.

This week’s big news, though, is Ty finally receiving some more concrete information on working in South Africa. Since they had started to talk about it, he found out that he would probably be sent down before Christmas, for two years. Now he knows that he’ll be going down in about two months (still for about two years). And no, I am not happy about this. So far, the only good thing to come out of this is him getting in one more visit to Boston in August. We’ve also been discussing me going down there for spring break, and possibly studying there for the summer, or finding an internship. He doesn’t know how much time he’ll have off, and therefore how often he can come back to the States.

Strangely enough, one of the things that’s been on my mind the most, is getting engaged. Because in my eyes, we both have to be in the States for that, it can’t happen in South Africa, simply because then it would be me going back to my parents and telling them alone. And we both know that we can’t wait until the two years are over. Of course one of the things he mentioned is that one of South Africa’s biggest exports is diamonds, and therefore they would be much cheaper down there, which I completely agree with. I’ve had fantasies of him surprising me with a ring on Labor Day when I’m moving back to school with my parents, but I’m almost 100% sure that that’s not going to happen, especially with the comment about diamonds. He also mentioned that he could just announce it when he’s up in Vermont with me and my parents, in two weeks. And as much as I would love that, the bottom line is that I don’t want to know about it. Because I won’t be able to handle worrying about it until then, or any other time. So even though I really want to get engaged before he goes (making him being gone a little easier), I need to have in my mind that it’s not going to happen, whether or not that’s true.

On a more light-hearted and knitting note, I’ve finally finished the first peacock sock!!! After multiple attempts and many weeks, it is done. And I’ve even started the second one, and I’m practically at the heel! Pictures and the pattern will be up soon. I’ve been so antsy to start new projects recently, which is why I want to finish this one so much. I finished another front panel for my peacoat, but am very apprehensive about felting it. Perhaps I will be up to the task tonight. I’ve pretty much decided that this is a definite no for submission to knitty, but maybe I’ll get something else done in time? September’s coming fast.

Bad News

I felted my first panel of my peacoat last night. And maybe I was in a rush, or maybe the knitting fates were busy, but it turned out not at all what I wanted. It’s salvageable, probably. It’s a ton narrower than I wanted, and a little bit shorter than I wanted. And the bottom was wider than the middle. And last but not least, it’s fuzzy! Aaahhhh. Because I have to do exactly the same thing again anyway, I think I will measure it every five minutes or so to see how it’s doing, instead of having faith like I did this time.

So I’m off to pittsburgh again this weekend to see Ty. Fortunately it’s only been two weeks, and it doesn’t actually feel like it’s been that long. I’m bringing my sock with me, which I’ll hopefully finish, but probably not. I aslo brought my gerifil spaghetti because I bought six whole skeins and I don’t like it! Ugh, it’s ribbony, which is not at all what I was expecting. I really want to make another tank top out of it, but haven’t quite been able to figure out what, partially because I don’t like it. I found a cool flickering flames pattern that I might use for the body of the tank, if it looks alright. I tried a stockinette swatch with size four needles and it was waaay too tight, it felt so gross. So I bumped it up to size eight needles (cause my interchangeable size sevens are in use), and it’s a little easier to work with, but I don’t know if it will look any better. I think it would look a lot cooler if the pink side of the yarn showed more, I think it’s tighter than the cotton part, so it stays on the inside of the stitch and isn’t seen (except on the wrong side).

I want to buy more yarn to cheer myself up, but I told myself that I’d only do one 50 dollar purchase per month, and I’ve already done so for June and July. So now I have to wait for August. Although I do have some nice wool that I want to make an entrelac hat out of… But I don’t want to give up on my peacoat quite that easily, but I am rather frustrated with it. I thought it would go a lot more smoothly than it has been so far.

Why am I always frustrated with my knitting? It never seems to go how I want it to. I think we’re in a love-hate relationship: I love it, it hates me. I try and try and try to measure and count and calculate and love, but whatever I do, it always ends up miles away from what I was expecting. I guess it might be that I still have so much to learn about knitting (namely that it’s in its nature to turn out wrong), but I’d like to believe that I am knowledgeable enough to do some designing, and not just follow blindly like sheep.

Oh well, I’ll just have to remember the quote “Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” – Albert  Einstein. So as long as I change something before I try again, I’m not insane!

I Think Too Much

Almost done with the first panel of my peacoat. Almost. It’s down to my knees already! I really do hope that it shrinks to the size I think it’s gonna shrink to. And I’m really worried about the fact that it rolls up, cause it’s stockinette, I feel like it’s gonna felt onto itself into a big tube. Perhaps if I pin it to the pillow case? When people make felted bags do they ever felt together? I guess I’ll figure it out once I finish this first panel. If it works, great, if not, I might have a hissy fit and stop the project. Ugh.

Not sure if this is gonna be the amazing addition to Knitty that I thought before. Even if it all works out fine, there’s the whole issue of sewing it together, and I dunno if I can put that down in a pattern, or if I can assume that people will know how to sew the pieces together. Also, if I want to line it, I’m gonna have to figure that out too, even if I don’t put it in the pattern. Aahhh! Too much stress. I should move onto something else.

Oh, so I found out that I’m now on Knitting Pattern Central as of yesterday. And therefore have been getting a ton of hits, which makes me happy. I’ll probably put a link up on each pattern to it’s site on Ravelry. I would really like if people started making my stuff, but it only counts if I know about it, and I can see pictures and stuff. Hence needing ravelry to do my stalking for me.

Another pattern idea I had a little while back is a black half-zip sweater. The bottom five inches will be filled with simple 1×1 cables in different colors (red, yellow, blue, green, purple). The front center will be a DNA cable, also colored, which separates with the zipper. I’m gonna call the sweater Helicase. On the back I think I’m gonna have “A T C G and sometimes U”. I thought of that part because of working with oligonucleotides, and we use all five (although I think we use U more than T…). I don’t know if that part really fits in with the rest of it, because oligos are single stranded. But whatever, I’ll figure that out when I get there.

Peacoat Update

I kinda had dropped the peacoat for the last few days because I wasn’t sure of the shaping, and I wanted to have an example in front of me. I was waiting for my friend to lend her peacoat to me, but she kept forgetting. So I just let it sit and worked on my sock (which of course I mis-crossed a cable and didn’t realize until more than an inch past it, and I’m too angry with this sock to fix it).

But it finally occurred to me, why don’t I check the downstairs closet for a peacoat, there’s got to be one. And voila! there was! The pieces are a bit different than I want, but that’s easily overcome. The collar was the only part that I was really worried about, simply because it’s worked in different pieces, and folds, so it’s hard to tell from a picture what the piece actually looks like.

I’m thinking that I make this one piece at a time, felting them as I go, just in case. The knitting is pretty fast, because it’s just stockinette, and on large needles. But I’m kinda worried about the shaping, because it will change when I felt it. And even though I’ve calculated it all, and it should work out, I’ve had plenty of experience with things going wrong, particularly swatches, so I’m nervous. But I guess this is why I bought so much extra yarn. Which so far has turned out to be a really good thing, because just the one front piece I have so far is basically taking an entire 292 yd skein! Good thing it’s so cheap. And fortunately there’s a ton more to buy in case I really miscalculated the yardage, or I screw up… That’s the unfortunate part about felting, you can’t undo it!

I’m not entirely sure how I’m going to sew it up, or make the button holes, or if I want a lining. But I guess I should have more than one piece before I start worrying over that. But I do hope that I can get it done in time for the Knitty submission, and therefore the start of school. Besides, if I don’t finish it before I get to school, I won’t be able to until thanksgiving! Because I wont have a top opening washing machine that I can stop and start, or a sewing machine. I guess the crunch isn’t on quite yet though.

Speaking of crunches though. My presentation is looming ever closer, and I’m only slowly doing anything about it. I’m sure I’ll be fine, and it helps that I have to explain the basics of the study design to people who don’t know much about out department, so that will kill some time. Part of my worry is the conclusions. I haven’t really made any yet, but when I do I’m pretty sure that they’ll be obvious, and therefore seem stupid. But I guess obvious is good, because then my audience will agree with me? I dunno, I’m nervous, even though I have a few weeks left. I don’t like making presentations…