Leaving Rochester...Maybe...Stupid Rochester...

It snowed today. Not much, just enough to be snow. In April. April 30th. Not like April Fool's Day or anything, but on the last day of April. The saying goes "April showers bring May flowers" and it's supposed to be RAIN showers, not snow. Oh well. I may be nearly done in Rochester. Or not. Who knows? Not me. At least, not yet.

Lee and I interviewed with Kanazawa Technical College for teaching positions in Japan. Send some good karma our way for that! They know we want to move together and are considering hiring us as a pair. That would be excellent. I'm really really REALLY hoping that's how it works out. If so, I'll be enlisting the aid of the Japanese Knitters group over on Ravelry for tips/advice/meetups once there. Though after a quick search, looks like there aren't any knitters/crocheters from Kanazawa on Ravelry. Ah well. Send good thoughts anyway! Japan for three years would be excellent. They say 10 - 14 days before they'll contact us, so we'll just have to wait and see!

The Zoo

I finally went to the Seneca Zoo, here in Rochester. This is my fifth year at RIT, and I finally got someone to take me. Lee and I went for a couple of hours when I realized I didn't have rehearsal and he didn't have anything planned either. Get ahead on homework? Work more on the job search? No, extra time + beautiful day = zoo + dinner at Delmonico's.



I've also finally got pictures of Thelonius, but not pictures of the baby dresses I'm crocheting now. I plan to offer the English translation once I've finished, since the pattern is currently only in Danish. I'm pretty sure I've translated it correctly. At least, it looks like what it's supposed to!


I'm still plugging away at my crocheted baby items, and I've also started working on my Cinderella Castle cross stitch again. I shall finish the castle today and start working on the moat. The worst part about such things is that they take so freaking long, and if you accidentally grab the light pearl grey because in the fluorescent lighting it looks like white and then use it for a bunch of parts, only to realize when you get home that it's not right and then rip it out again, it takes even longer.

Pictures!

Chinatown is a wonderful movie. Simply wonderful. I loved it a lot. Which is good, because I wasn't sure how good all those AFI movies would be. I'm very glad to have found one I really enjoyed, instead of just saying either "yeah, I can see why that's on the list" or "how the !@#%$#% did that get on the list?"

I will have you know that, as I am typing this, I am also wearing one sock because I have just finished knitting the first sock of the test knit pair. I have also bought the zipper for the hoodie. I should be finishing both this weekend, and maybe the two little almost done amigurumi. I will also probably be starting the baby dresses and/or booties before finishing all that, though, because if I finish the four before starting anything else, I will be below 10, and once I get below 10, I shall be trying to stay that way. So I gotta get the interesting new projects done so they don't tempt me while I'm finishing Blaze. Or Rogue. Or Peasantry. Or cross stitching. Wow, are those three sweaters really the only unfinished knit items I have with me? Except for the sock I'm frogging, they are. Wow.

Hey, speaking of the sock I'm frogging, if I finish all four PLUS frog the sock, I will be at 8, and therefore can make new things because as long as I finish one before the next, I'll still be below 10. Awesome.

As promised, here are some lovely pictures of things that have been going on:

Present I received from the lovely Angela:

Lovely laceweight that will be paired with my leftover MS3 black for a flame scarf.

Warm and toasty for the ears. Which is actually really good, because, living here in a cold climate, I have a hat that I've crocheted for myself. One. And I don't wear it all that often either. Every cold day, I say, I really should make me something to cover my ears. I'm not so much a hat person, but something like this or a calorimetry is what I have been coveting. And now I have one, in a very beautiful colorway, yay! Just in time for this:

In March. Yeah. Love you, Rochester!

And look, I'm crafty in other ways too! Painted chocolates. I had most of a pound of white chocolate leftover from Easter, so I colored a bunch of it and made Care Bears. Not all actually in the correct color scheme, but tasty nonetheless.

I got a picture of the almost done Thelonius (now finished) with some flowers, yay! Spring does exist in Rochester!

Quick Update

So, I finished a pair of socks, and started a pair of socks. Another test knit for Gardiner Yarn Works. I finished all the knitting on the Little Cabled Hoodie (again, Gardiner Yarn Works) and just need to get a zipper to finish it all up. I also have two little amigurumi that need just a little bit of work to be completed. I also have a friend who's had?...having?...haven't spoken to him in a couple months...anyway, there is/will be a little girl sometime around now-ish. So, I'm thinking of making a couple cute little quick baby dresses (Ravelry) from stash yarn and a matching pair of baby booties (Ravelry). I have black and white, so I was going to make one black dress with a contrasting (maybe white, maybe something else) stripe near the bottom, and one white with a black stripe near the bottom, and a pair of booties that are black on the bottom and white on the top. I have the yarn, I just need the correct size crochet hook and the time. I've also been really wanting to cross stitch recently.

I tossed Blaze into my backpack, since I finished the hoodie, so I can make advances upon it. It would be great for the fall, so hopefully I'll get it done by then. It would be great to get it done sooner than the fall, say, by the end of the month so it's done already, but it's a bit tedious. Not sure it'll happen. But I won't be putting other crafts into the backpack, so I should make some grudging progress. I also carry my purse with my backpack, and I have socks in there. The real question is how many pairs of Christmas socks I'll finish while putting off working on Blaze...

I haven't been making much headway in my 101 things, but I have been reading. The movies I've been watching have been not so much on the list. I've found that Mrs. Dalloway, by Virginia Woolf, is a much better read when you're drinking tequila. Makes ever so much more sense that way. I'm still angry at It for having missing pages. Stupid book...

Pictures of things in my camera. I will be getting them off of my camera and onto the internets either tonight or tomorrow, since I will have uninterrupted computer time as Lee is in Fort Wayne, Indiana for a job interview. Send good vibes his way!

Stupid Rochester

So on Monday, I spent the gorgeous sunny day wishing I had my camera with me. The sun was shining, birds were singing, it was warm out, and it really felt like spring. I even saw Spring; there was a beautiful little bunch of purple flowers, newly blooming in one of the garden plots. I had my Thelonius socks with me and they matched the flowers beautifully! I had my Rogue with me and I grafted the hood; it would have been lovely to take its picture (sans sleeves as of yet) at the oriental garden near the art building. The sun was glinting through the windows in my Food and Wine pairing class, shining off of and through the colorful wines we had poured in our five Riedel glasses. That, along with the plate of delicious food, would have made a most excellent image. But alas, there was no camera to be had. I did not bring my camera yesterday because I would not have had any time to be taking any pictures, though it was again a lovely, sunny day.

Today, I brought my camera, determined to photograph my lovely socks during my lunch break with the flowers that went oh so well with them. Rogue is now at home, so wouldn't have gotten photographed. Also the body of the hoodie I'm working on is at home since it's waiting for the sleeves, and I'm just starting those. It was gorgeous all morning as I was cleaning and doing homework (and sleeping in late since I just haven't been sleeping well in general). Lee went out for a bike ride and wore shorts today. I wore a long sleeved shirt, jeans, and sandals, because I'm always cold, but was thinking I'd have been fine in short sleeves as I was walking in. I'm sitting in my noon class, waiting for it to be over so I can go back outside to enjoy the lovely day and take pictures while scarfing down lunch so I can go back to the labs and do more homework. I'm getting apprehensive because the sky is starting to look dark. It always looks dark because someone decided to make the windows in the engineering building act like sunglasses. Because that's necessary in a place where it's cloudy 75% of the time the building is in use...So I'm ready to go take my pictures, and it starts raining as I walk out. Stupid @#%@$^ Rochester. And of course, when I've finished my homework and am sitting inside, tutoring, until my 6 - 8 class, it's all sunny again. Why does Rochester like to torment me so???

I did not finish my Thelonius for Monday's meeting. I instead finished the body of the hoodie I'm test knitting for and worked on Rogue a bit. I finished the hood because I thought I needed the circular connector for an extra long needle to magic loop the sleeves of the child's hoodie I'm test knitting. Sleeves are only 32 stitches around, so the magic loop doesn't quite work. I got size 10 DPNs instead. Now that Rogue is not taking up any useful materials, I do believe she'll go into hibernation for awhile. I won't be wearing her until it gets cold again, and I have a bunch of other projects I can work on. Also I swear I got 11 or 12 skeins of yarn, and only currently have 10. I think I accidentally left the other two in my Albany yarn boxes. Which means I probably can't finish her now, since I think it'll take a bit more than 1.5 skeins per sleeve. If I get more, it won't be of the same dye lot, so I'd have to knit one row of each dye lot starting at the bottom of the sleeves so it wouldn't be noticed. Which means I can't start the sleeves until I find the errant skein or two, or break down and get more. She looks great though, even without the sleeves! Pictures to come, along with a post about the pocket and the hood graft, as well as my sizing choices. Because you all want to know about that, right?

Can't Play By My Own Rules...

Why is it that I can't seem to read directions correctly when I'm test knitting? Specifically, directions about the gauge. This is the second time I've test knit something and knit the yarn to the ball band gauge, which is not quite the gauge called for. The first time, it wasn't a problem, but this time, it most certainly is. So, I'll be re-starting the cardigan I started a couple of days ago. Sad, since I was about halfway done with the body (to the armpits), but now it'll actually fit. It's going to go to my sister. Also, it's rather difficult to test knit something for someone if you're not actually knitting to the gauge the pattern is meant for.

I've broken my self-imposed rules about starting projects. And you thought my worrying about approaching the limit was foolish! It's a test knit that I'm getting compensated for though, so it can get priority. I have a second test knit item in the wings, a pair of socks. They need the needles that my Thelonius are currently on, so that gives me incentive to finish. That and I'd really love to wear the socks to my robotics meeting on Monday. I'm currently on the heel flap, so I shouldn't too much of a problem finishing them this weekend. Especially since I realized that I need to rip and re-do the cardigan/hoodie, and don't have the rest of my Boye Needlemaster with me to switch them out. What really bugs me is that I almost started with what should be the correct needles (US9 as opposed to the 8s that I'm using) and then switched them out upon realizing my error. I'm getting about 4.5 sts/in and 6 rows, but the gauge is 4 sts and 5.5 rows. D'oh!

Yes, Rogue is on hold. Yes, so is almost everything else. But test knitting comes first, especially when it's a hoodie I can give my little sister, who was oh-so-not thrilled with her Christmas socks. Also, I'll only be one project ahead of the allowed, so finishing one won't be that big a deal. If I can find one I want to finish and stick to it!