Friday, May 06, 2005
The last several weeks, 4 separate couples announced they were pregnant, and funnily enough ALL are due in October. What's in the water? A strange global phenom as they're all from different parts of the globe. One couple includes my cousin, and the other, Duck's brother. Hooray, we're officially off the hook! Finally someone in the family is stepping up to the plate. Duck and I get to practice before...anything happens. Anyway now it looks like I'll finally have a chance to knit for someone other than me. Cute baby things!
Any recommendations as to a book of the cutest baby patterns? If you were a new parent, would you like receiving something that your newborn could wear now, as a 3-6 month old, or could wear a year from now? Babies grow so fast...
Filed Under: General Knitting
Thursday, May 05, 2005
I've just been tagged by Adele, or She Who Knits 1000 Projects At Once. This meme is my first ever. It's about books. I like books.
Total number of books in your house ...
For an avid reader, not that many. Well I take that back, there are a couple of factors. First, there's not enough time in the day for me to be an avid reader -- hello, have you noticed how time-consuming knitting is?? -- but for someone who really enjoys reading, there still aren't so many books in the house. Less than 100 definitely. Second, I love browsing through the bookstore, but love checking out library books more. In fact I just went and checked out the America textbook by Jon Stewart, read the foreword by T. Jefferson and already it's the funniest thing I've ever laid my eyes on. Anyway, I have this horrible habit of not finishing what I start. The library cures me of the guilt of having spent $15 on something I might not finish.
The books I do own are mostly classics, especially those involving spirited English girls, instant classics like Harry Potter, non-fiction (plenty on Elizabeth I, various European monarchs, and geek computer crap), and a large stash of travel books.
The last book you bought was …
The World is Flat: A Brief History of the 21st Century by Thomas L. Friedman
Haven't started yet.
The last book you read was …
Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy
Everyone now and then I need a real feel-good kind of a read.
5 (or 6) Books You Often Read or That Mean A Lot to You …
These are books that I not only often read, but books that have made me weep:
Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
The South shall rise again! Great writing, great storytelling. When Melanie on her deathbed tells Scarlett to "be kind to Rhett, he loves you so," I get all choked up. Trivia: This book is the only one I know of that's won the Pulitzer and whose movie won the Oscar.
Bastard out of Carolina by Dorothy Allison
So beautifully written. So bloody sad.
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by What's Her Face
Towards the end of the book, with Sirius dead and Harry pissed and confused, Dumbledore tells him that contrary to all well-laid plans, he ended up caring more for Harry's happiness than for his knowing the truth. The chapter closes with a tear trickling down his long wizardy beard. It's tough seeing a grown man cry.
Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery
When Matthew tells Anne that he's glad the orphanage didn't send a boy, I start blinking uncontrollably. Great series. All her books are.
Emma and Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen
None of these made me cry per se, but they're my Most Favorite Books of All Time. Wit never gets boring.
And there you have it.
I will next tag Blossom (fellow Taiwanese from the South!), and Carolyn (fellow Bostonian!)
Filed Under: Life
Wednesday, May 04, 2005
I picked out little mother-of-pearl buttons for AJ yesterday at Windsor Buttons. The buttons' own bluey iridescense matches the teal of the yarn. Fantabulous! Only half a sleeve to go...and the slip crochet edging (slip-stitches not so easy, maybe I'll try single)...and the sewing of the buttons, which hey, just occurred to me, I don't think I know the proper way to sew buttons?
I also purchased two more Phildar magazines - the latest spring and the latest spring Famille. I don't know the reason why I haven't completed anything from Phildar when I love their stuff, AND their patterns are easy to follow. Everyone gets a chart! My second sweater was supposed to the Drapey Shoulder one, but it's so far been woefully neglected as I plough through one Rebecca project after another. It's funny how I've been totally on the Rebecca-only train. Kind of just happened.
Tulips in Copley Square
Still too brisk out to really feel like spring, but it sure looks like it. By the way, thanks for all the nice comments you guys left about AJ. I hope to take her on her first Grand Day Out this weekend. Fingers crossed...
Filed Under: Phildar | Rebecca 27 | Apricot Jacket
Sunday, May 01, 2005
Front half of AJ seemed
Instead of casting on immediately for the next sleeve after finishing one, I decided I'd start seaming one side so any adjustments that might have to be made can be done before everything's been knitted and sewn up. I learned my lesson after unwittingly knitting up The Sweater with Gorilla Arms that, after much cursing and way too much math, later became Savanna.
For AJ I went down two needle sizes to a size 6/4.25mm, and for awhile there it looked as if I'd have the complete opposite of the gorilla arms problem, but (angels singing) all is well. In fact I think this is the best fitting sleeve/shoulder I've knitted and seamed so far. No lumpy frumpy bumpiness, and the sleeves are hitting right below my wrist, instead of down to my knuckles as usual with Rebecca patterns.
Two minutes after the post on the Adrienne V. shaped top, I derailed on the lace pattern for the right side and could not reconcile it enough to get back on track. Ripped out a few rows and will return to it once I black out their chart with a big black marker and rechart it myself, following the textual instructions found in the first pattern, in the same book. So same lace pattern, but instructions for one piece uses text only, and instructions for other uses chart only. How odd is that? I did a cursory row-by-row match of the text and the chart to confirm that they actually don't match. So yeah, the chart is crap.
Spring in the Boston Public Garden
To celebrate my favorite month that is May, the month my favorite flowers that are lilacs will be in bloom, I present this lovely picture of spring that is currently awash all over Boston. Unfortunately this picture was taken last year, because this weekend it did nothing but rain. I am so looking forward to warmer weather (not this 55, 60 degree crap) and pleasant sunshine. Boston is so very nice when the weather is too.
Filed Under: Adrienne V | Rebecca 27 | Apricot Jacket
Wednesday, April 27, 2005
How we celebrated my birthday:
I was out of town, so nothing
Gifts received: none
How we celebrated his birthday:
Ate steak.
Gifts given: none
Gifts exchanged at Christmas:
Zero.
How we celebrated Valentine's Day:
Ignored it
How we will celebrate our 3rd wedding anniversary today:
Fierce snuggling on the couch with the boys while watching netflix, like we do every other evening.
Life with Duck is so much fun, every single day, that on special occasions I want nothing more than for everything to be exactly as they are.
Filed Under: Life
Tuesday, April 26, 2005
Front of Dianne, several rows into lace pattern and v-neck split.
Looks all innocent in the afternoon sunglow, but she's a total bitch.
Dianne started off normally enough. 15 inches of pure stockinette
stitches with a few waist decreases and increases thrown in to keep the
eyes open. Nevertheless stockinette sure gets boring quick, so I was
pleased to have finally reached the lace pattern so that the real fun
could begin.
The pattern says this is for experienced
knitters. That part at least is correct. But let me clarify a
bit. Experienced here does not mean experienced in knitting
techniques - there are nothing but simple yarn-overs, ssk and k2tog
here.
Experienced means "Keeping a smile on your face while you navigate
the very turbulent landscape of our pot-hole filled, erroneous,
lazy and all-around shitty pattern, and still come out the other side
with something that isn't completely F&*D and without having
kicked your cat for no reason (to him)." I am not an experienced
knitter. Sorry Bunny, hope your hips aren't too misaligned.
Lace Pattern. Or, A Very Bumpy Road Ahead
The chart is wrong in some places (unequal number of increases and
decreases, even though in the instructions it says to "make sure number
of inc and dec are the same for a given row."). It tells you how many
stitches to cast on but that's about it as far as helpful stitch
numbers go. You're left on your own as to how many should be left on
the shoulders when all is said and done, if you've managed to get
that far intact.
Also, there are no edge stitches. They've even got yarn-overs and
decreases at the edges. Knitting hooligans! How am I going to seam this
thing?
In conclusion. The
instructions could not be any worse than if you removed the chart
and replaced it with a picture of a giant dirty rat. The only way to pilot this thing is by the seat of
your pants, and to fill the holes as you go along. Counting stitches to
keep in pattern is useless, which is why for me I've got
a delta of 5 stitches between the left and right front. But it
doesn't matter. I'll get that under control eventually. I'm doing
whatever I gotta do to keep the lace in pattern, even if that
means conducting suspect accounting practices by putting an
extra credit here or another debit over there.
I will finish this though. I will.
Did I at some point say that the Apricot Jacket pattern was hard to follow? Did I say it more than once? Interesting.
PS. I didn't really kick the cat.
Filed Under: Adrienne V
Friday, April 22, 2005
It's unbelievable what changes while 10 days away from New England in the middle of April. Suddenly now there is what appears to be FOLIAGE. I'm seeing things that are green, yellow, and PINK. All my daffodils are in bloom. The hyacinths are at peak. The tulips are ready to party. And the peonies! Just before I left for Taipei I was searching in vain for their little pokey heads in the dirt, and now they've seemingly bypassed the Pokey Heads stage and headed straight into Twelve Whole Inches of Fluffy Leaves with Even a Few Buds Included stage!
All the perennials planted Spring '04 - ah yes that magical season of unsurpassed gardening frenzy because I wasn't working - are coming back as well. I know it's their job, but I'm still surprised.
 Back to knitting talk. I finished the left side of AJ. I will say again: the instructions for this piece are f'ed up. I continue only because I really love this cardigan, and because every knitter and their dog on this planet has managed to complete this piece well enough to wear it in public. And so will I damnit.
So first the good news: the mystery that is the front bands has been revealed - they're knitted at each shoulder of the front pieces. You bind off about half of the stitches for the shoulder, and then continue knitting the other half for some inches which will then constitute "front bands." Ahhhh.
Now the bad news: With the front pieces joined together by the front bands, the piece will resemble a halter top. So the front bands then are really back bands, wrapping behind your neck. In the back. Not the front. The back. Back bands. BACK bands you fools. That yes, are knitting from the front. If You Pattern Writers had just mentioned this very quickly somewhere in the footnote of the pattern I wouldn't be so upset.
More bad news: What REALLY bugs me is that for the front/back bands, the pattern says to cast on an extra stitch "anew" at the edge. Anew is too quaint a word for a task so clugey. Unless I misinterpret, anew requires dropping/snipping the old yarn and attaching a new ball for the sake of ONE cast-on. Why not just do a simple increase? Or, why not bind off a stitch less? Or, why not account for the extra stitch in pattern? Or better yet, why don't we just not do it?
I need to find me an AJ support group.
I'm hoping that like the front band mystery itself, when finished this extra stitch tumor will reveal itself to be useful if not totally mandatory. For now I'm a little put off by the whole thing and have taken a break from AJ, and started AV.
Adrienne V that is, Shaped Top #6 from Spring 2005. I'm going to give it a less clinical name and call it...Dianna. After the name of the yarn. This name will work if I knit in this yarn this one time in my life only.
Filed Under: Adrienne V | Life | Rebecca 27 | Apricot Jacket
Sunday, April 17, 2005
Every day is a packed blur that I can't even remember what I did this morning aside from having a very hard time pulling myself out of bed. This trip has been the first time that I/we haven't tagged along with my mother here and there like illiterate ducklings. We're still illiterate but can finally find our way around unsupervised, and at least have some sense of direction --I asked Mom once whether grandma's house or auntie's house is eastern Taipei, western, southern...? and she had utterly no idea. She can't find her way out of a paper bag, even the same paper bag she's lived in for 30 years.
The funeral was yesterday. My uncle, the new patriarch of the family, delivered a lovely speech after Mass that we were all in tears. After the burial the entire family had lunch together at a nearby restaurant. About 50 of us in somber black attire streamed in on a wedding banquet being held at the same time. I'm sure they loved that.
It turned out that knitting store I visited the other day with the hideous prices was Filatura di Crosa. Just so you know.
Filed Under: Life | Travel | Taipei
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