Ply and Burl

As I send this out into cyberspace, I expect to hear a resounding echo of my own voice, signaling that there is no one left reading my poor, abandoned blog. Sorry, digital friends, for having been gone so long. Who knew grad school would crumple up my life like a ball of tin foil, stomp it into a pancake and then swallow it whole in one big bite?

As you can tell, I’m still learning the grad school time management thing. Until I do, I can only steal a few minutes here and there to myself. Which has meant not much knitting. Also, dangit, I’ve lost the cord to download photos from my camera, so the few pictures I do have are locked in. As for gardening, moving to a new town and renting a house with virtually no yard has meant only a few neglected potted veggies on the front stoop.

From the above perspective, it’s looks a sad state. But I swear, there are fun parts! I’m designing a technical system that tries to help the homeless! I’m doing systems consulting for a creative group at GM! I’m learning to scrape data from the web and elicit interesting things from it using Perl! Yay!

I’m also not sleeping much and reading hundreds of pages of papers a week. The thorn on the rose, I suppose.

One good thing — since the last time I wrote, in the thick of my lazy summer, I’ve lost 25 pounds. So I’m no longer shy about posting pictures of myself in the Sunrise Circle Jacket! It turned out quite beautifully, though I had to felt it a little in the dryer to get it to fit better. Sadly, however, the Airy Cardigan turned out to be a boxy, floppy thing, that was bad even before I shrunk out of it.

Also, in the next post (which I’m going to write RIGHT NOW!) — the pattern for Joel’s Kuryeon hat, which has been waiting in the wings for months.

I’ve missed you all, my blogger friends, so if you get this, my golden record, do send me a sign!

Did you hear? I’m famous! In addition to boosting my nerdiness-based self-esteem, Jenny and Nicole of Stash and Burn pulled off an incredible feat in having my stashquations read aloud and made meaningful in their podcast!

But a note to John, their resident mathematician: If I have to tell you why 308 is special, well, you’ll just never understand.
Thanks to Wikipedia for the correlation equations.

People on the web claim time and again that Addi Turbos do not kink. This intrepid reporter is here to tell you that Addi Turbos do kink. Behold, my once smooth and supple Addis, after innocuously hanging from my circular needle holder for several months:

These buggers were kinked from here to Toledo! I tried knitting with them, thinking they might soften up again as they changed position. No dice. Knitting with them was a total drag.

Luckily, steaming them over boiling water helped a little, and dipping them in the hot water helped a lot. Still, after using the Knit Picks Options needles, these cables feel stiffer than they used to. But that’s another story for another day.

For now, my debunking work is done.

I thought the whole internet was crazy for the past two years with its Clapotis obsession. I thought it was ugly, from the pictures. Then, the other night, I finally saw one in the flesh (or wool, should I say) at Stitch & Bitch and now I get it. The Clapotis is gorgeous. I must, must, must make one. In Noro Silk Garden reds. Right now! Right this minute!

Nicole and Jenny wondered, on their new podcast Stash and Burn (which is so fun by the way), why some people don’t accumulate a stash. I’m one of those people. I have yarn for a few projects and some skeins given as gifts, but it all fits in a drawer or two. It might count as a mini-stash that hardly ever grows. So I thought I’d offer a few insights into my stashlessness, in an attempt to help them answer their question. My medium of choice? Mathematical formulas. Awesome.

Stashquation 1: Income and Stash Size positively correlate.

That is to say, no money, no stash, baby. This correlation can be negated, however, by the presence of a credit card. Here it is in an easy-to-grasp formula:

Stashquation 2: Creative Bravado and Stash Size positively correlate.

That is to say, no balls, no balls, baby. Expressed mathematically:

This phenomenon can be further explained by the following:

Sub-Stashquation 2.1: You Big Chicken

((Desire for said yarn / lack of project vision) / yardage uncertainty) / dyelot anxiety = Small Stash

I’m still scared to make up my own patterns for anything but hats, so I tend not to buy yarn that I lust over (even when I have the money, see Stashquation 1) because a) I’m not sure what I’ll make with it, so b) I don’t know how much to buy, thus c) I worry about having enough in the same dyelot, and therefore d) I become a coward and don’t buy it.

And finally:

Stashquations 3 & 4: Time in Knitting Stores and Books About Knitting Owned positively correlate with Stash Size.

This time expressed as a geometric correlation:

Now these last two aren’t from personal experience, just something I’ve extrapolated from others’ discussions of stashing. However, it seems as if the Books correlation may be in question, so feel free to confirm or deny.

Stasher? Stashless? Come on, share your theories!

The Victoria and Albert Museum website has a whole collection of knitted items, including this Share Your Knitting gallery where visitors can share photos of their non-garment knitted items.

Anyone else know of interesting museum collections (digital or brick-and-mortar) of knitted objects?

Certain things in this world have universal appeal; in my humble observation, they include: puppies, babies, girls in bikinis, ice cream, chocolate, and Noro Kureyon hats.

What is it about this old hat? I’ve been wearing it forever — I can’t even remember when I made it, but it is at least six years old, possible nine. The yarn has started to felt, there’s a little hole on the side, an end has come unwoven and pokes out the bottom, the top is puckered due to my off-the-cuff pattern design, the roll at the brim has come unrolled, and the hat’s gotten loose all over.

Yet every time I take out this hat, I get scads of compliments. Even I’m under its spell — I’ve only made two other hats for myself during those years, both of them more becoming than the Kureyon hat, but they never got as much head time. Clearly, you can deduce from my nomenclature, I think it’s due to the yarn; that lovely, rainbow, speckled, earthy yarn.

Yesterday, I had a brief moment where I thought I’d lost this hat, and I secretly had that feeling you get right before you cry. Luckily, I found it just moments later, and no tears were shed. But it made me pause to admire the irresistible magnetism of my little hat, such a grand enchantress of headwear!

Do you have an object you’ve knit like this? Perennial friend you wear year after year? Widely admired despite being a little old and rough around the edges?

Oh, Knitpicks, I have nothing but love in my heart for you. 100% Merino, worsted-weight, superwash? Did you make Swish Superwash just for me? Did you read my mind, or just have excellent focus groups? I can’t wait.

Finding a good knitting bag has been an epic task, with little success. I had one made by a seamstress (in a trade). It’s made of Japanese fabrics and lovely to behold. However, it lacked structure and compartments, making my knitting stuff a giant jumbled, flopped-over mess.

But now I think I’m on to something — The Closer-to-Perfect Knitting Bag. It’s the XS Zip-top Tote from Mountainsmith.

I have an enormous and ongoing crush on this bag. Tall enough to hold a pattern, several balls of yarn and a few pieces of your sweater project (and your sock project besides). Rubber bottom that makes the bag stand up on its own and stay up! It has an open front pocket and open inside pocket for temporary storage, and then a zipped inside pocket for other notions. But my favorite part so far? A top panel, that zips to close the bag and has a semi-transparent zipped pocket in it. Perfect for travel — your tickets, passport, wallet in the top pocket, knitting and notions inside, nothing lost.

Semi-transparent top panel.

My junk inside.

Click on the images to see bigger photos with comments!

They say time goes by faster when you get older (a ripe 30), and there’s nothing like the garden and the yarn store to prove it. A quick jaunt to the garden to pick a few peas always extends to a little pulling. a little pruning, a little thinning, a little weeding, and suddenly three hours have gone by! This weekend’s trip to the yarn store was a great case in point: Got to chatting with Hickory, starting with yarn and ending with “naturist” camps, and my five minute trip to get some Addis turned magically and imperceptibly turned into an hour before I even looked up at my watch. Hey Einstein, more proof for the theory of relativity!