Organized Surprise

09/11/08 Update: All done!

Special thanks to Shelly Hattan for her awesome row counts chart!

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I have been continuously irked by the fact that everyone but me seems to know about knit-a-longs; where to find them, when they are starting, how to join them, etc. After months of failing to get in on one, I decided to bring the mountain to myself, and so, I have started a KAL for the Zimmerman Baby Surprise Jacket for the South Bend Knitwork group on Ravelry. As I have never KALed before as a participant, it could be described as ill-defined at best. However, I found an awesome BSJ Row counts chart that has proven very helpful thus far.

I am about 14 rows in and so far so good. I am using my hand-dyed Fisherman's yarn on size 6 circulars, and while it looks pretty, I am a little disappointed the yarn isn't patterning as much as I would have hoped. That said, the pattern calls for huge changes in the numbers of stitches per row, so I am optimistic that the pattern will pick up at some point.

If anyone wants to get in on this, come see the South Bend Knitwork and share your progress.
Here's mine:

There IS a Doctor in the house!

Customer: Help! This man is choking!
Waiter: Is there a doctor in the house?
Organic Chemist: Why, I am a doctor.
Waiter: Help this man!
Organic Chemist: Oh, I am not that kind of doctor. I have a PhD in chemistry and I am on the tenure track at a local liberal arts college.
Customer: He's dead.
Waiter: Well, thanks for wasting that 30 seconds, "Doctor"!

Don't worry. Thanks to the Associated Press, such tragic scenarios would never play out in real life. Despite the fact that the AP has no role in awarding or stripping degrees, the AP Stylebook states that when referring to people who have been awarded academic PhDs, they should be referred to as Mr. or Ms., with the Dr. prefix being reserved for medical doctors. Like this one:



This is in spite of the fact that the word "Doctor" is from the Latin word "teacher" (doceo, docere, docui, doctus – to teach), and was used to refer to the most learned people in a society. Back in the day, it was the case that the most educated person in a village would likely have been the local physician, but I should point out that this was at a time when phrenology was considered the wave of the future!

What, to me, is more interesting is that the AP, for the most part, comprises people who have only received a bachelors. This means that a group of people lower than me on the academic totem pole have bestowed upon themselves the right essentially to strip me of the academic reverence that I have earned.

I can only conclude this means that any group, who have no particular role in awarding academic titles or honors, can, at their discretion, decide to refer officially to others as they please. So, with that precedent in mind, I will henceforth be referring to members of the AP with the prefix, Lobotomized Peon.

"Leg To Stand On" Fail
Pay attention to how the journalist refers to Dr. Baldwin.

10 Things #1: International Edition!

I finally finished the Butterfly Cardigan from Sensual Crochet. It was an awesome pattern and I love that it is assembled in one piece because seaming is probably my least favourite part of knitting. I'm also very excited that I did a lacy crochet pattern because I had never attempted one before. The instructions where so easy and by the time I was working the front patterns I had the stitch memorised.

It's currently blocking and taking its sweet time to dry, which has lead to me walking a few pins into my feet... ouch! I finished it here in Ireland where I am currently vacationing. It wanted to finish it in international airspace, but the peons at Aer Lingus wouldn't let me take it in my carry-on for weight reasons. Instead, the wouldn't-be Archimedes's made me pack it into my checked luggage which was nowhere near the weight limit. So, me, my cardigan-free carry-on and my cardigan-ful checked luggage all went on the same plane to Ireland, and I worked on it in a zombie-like state of jet lag. I did manage to get my Neapolitan yarn onto the plane so ripped out the project I was using it for that wasn't going so well and started some Jaywalkers instead.

In other related frogging news, I eighty-sixed the original 10 things #1 project (hence the numbering on this one). I had ambitiously started adapting a pattern from Hot Knits to be in the round, and while it would have worked, it required better note-taking than I was willing to do. Also, I didn't have enough yarn to finish it, and the store I got it from doesn't stock it anymore! I'll definitely revisit the pattern, because it's awesome (i.e. it's a Melissa Leapman), but I'll buy enough yarn and RTFM!!!

That's Two!

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Addendum: Awwww, fits perfectly!

We're Getting Married!!!

Here are the photos from our wonderful engagement weekend. Nick took me to the Signature Room in the Hancock Building in Chicago. He proposed to me before dinner and we had a wonderful evening, made better by the free dessert the waiters gave us to congratulate us. The next morning we went to a Sonic for breakfast and headed to the Purdue game. Our team won, and we had a great time other than Nick getting sunburned. We went for dinner with friends and the next morning we had brunch with his old boss. All in all the weekend was perfect and Nick and I are excited to be engaged!

Before we were engaged:



After he asked me to marry him:






Nick happy that I said yes, or that we got free dessert - I don't know which:


Validated parking... thank you Cheesecake Factory!


Sonic for breakfast:


At the Purdue tailgate:



The lady behind us in the previous picture very nicely offered to take the picture below

Nick got a little sunburned!


We won!


Nick admiring new Rockne statue... I didn't know Kansans were allowed near that!

I wanted him to do the pose, he refused!

Fun with waving:

I won!!!

I spotted this auction about a week ago. The buy it now price was $50 (plus $10 shipping), which was barely a deal given the low price at Erica's. The reserve was $10, so I decided to practice that virtue and wait until it closed, which was to happen at 10pm on Friday. I checked in every so often, relieved to see that there were zero bids. I guess knitting isn't as hip as I think it is, but that works out well for me in situations like this. But then.... shock and horror.... the day it was due to close, someone placed a bid at the reserve price. I convinced myself to calm down and reasoned that I could be at my laptop at the point the auction closed. Then, I got two phones calls; one friend had successfully defended a Ph.D. thesis and another had gotten the biggest personal injury verdict for a client in St. Joe County history!!!! Obviously, I am not such an awful friend that I would let yarn trump helping my friends' celebrations so I placed a bid and left to go to a local bar. A few hours, and a little tipsiness, later, I came home and was bowled over to find that, not only had I won, the auto-bid function on Ebay had only driven me to $2 over the reserve! I have to say that my over-empathizing is so bad that I feel very guilty about taking the yarn away from that other user. But hey, I haven't been paid in over a month and I am completely broke and dyeing wool is about the only thing that's entertaining in my personal economic climate! (That means that I will very selfishly not be sharing or reselling my spoils of bidding-war.... sorry!)
I can't wait for it to arrive. I have packets and packets of generic-brand Kool Aid waiting for it (again with the broke!). Good times, the way a lot of things have been going recently, I needed this.

A Series of Serendipitous Mishaps

Jess and I went to Erica's today (during work.... shhhh!), and spurred by her wonderful hand-dyed yarn that she used to make a skirtie, I bought two skeins of Fisherman's yarn. I ran to Walmart, and despite being told by Jessica that knitty has a guide to the results you can obtain using Kool Aid, I randomly grabbed a variety of 20 cent sachets with no forward planning.
True to form, I half-read the instructions and then launched into microwaving my yarn in vinegar and kool aid concoctions. Whilst meaning to do only one color scheme this evening, I used both skeins and made three different color schemes with matching trims. The upstairs reeks of vinegar and Kool Aid, my kitchen table has a weird green hue to it now and my left hand looks like that animate pitcher got sick on it.... totally worth it!!!
It turns out that I didn't quite use enough Kool Aid, but I am in love with how the white adds something to the color-schemes. I also love how my grab-bag combos all came out; I am particularly proud of the one on the left.
I am going to let them dry and then picture them individually. I am planning to come up with pompous names for the colorways that have nothing to do with the colors or, indeed, knitting itself. I can't wait for them to be ready to knit up!!!

No Smoking? Please!!!

I have recently started cycling to work in an effort to drop some of my thesis weight, and get back into shape after my dissertation-induced 9-month hiatus from physical activity. There's a hill on my route to work that is steeper than I can handle, so I get off my bike and walk until the road is level again. I was cycling last to work last week when, much to my chagrin, I met a girl from the department, with whom I have never gotten on too well. For the first time ever, I made it up the hill on my bike, simply because I was too stubborn to get off my bike in front of her. Apparently, I can dig deep in times of need and overcome obstacles fueled on pure spite! Not the nicest personality trait to be so aware of, I know!
I also used my thesis defense as a cut-off for smoking. Accordingly, I quit the day after I defended and have not smoked a cigarette since. I was talking to my colleague today while chewing nicotine gum. I made a comment about how awful it tasted, only to have my colleague, and another friend launch into jokes about how many times I have failed quitting in the past and how other people have made similar comments in my absence. Basically, an all-out vote of no confidence!
So, if I had wavered in my resolve to quit prior to this; consider me re-resolved!! I am determined, not because of health, economics or social acceptance of smoking, but because of the impenetrable power of spite, to be a life long non-smoker!
Bring it!