Blogcoven » knitting

Plan B

dixie — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 13:20:50 +0000

It’s getting darker earlier — not ridiculously early, just not ridiculously late anymore. I’ve been on one sort-of job interview with a recruiter for a job that would have been nearly perfect, except that the company when faced with a stack of CVs decided that people with experience would be desirable. (Which itself is interesting, since the job was advertised as an entry-level position.) As many of you might have heard, it’s not a good time to be job hunting.

Grad students, especially the younger ones, talk a lot. I remember the first time I heard the “Plan B” discussion (no, this is not a blog entry about contraception, please take your reappropriated slang term somewhere else). One student in the year ahead of me was talking about how much she liked cooking and that if chemistry didn’t work out she’d go to culinary school. My Plan B, when the conversation came around to me, was usually bartending. It’s like chemistry, with fewer and tastier ingredients. It is probably just as likely to kill you. After I picked up knitting, I got lots and lots of comments about how I could be knitting for a living instead of doing science. I tried not to take this as a hint about my chemistry ability, especially when it came from co-workers…

I used to think that if I won the lottery — a small jackpot, enough to live on but not necessarily the “buy a house on every habitable continent” win, I’d take a lot of time off and teach knitting. I have not won the lottery, but I have fallen ass-backwards into a small-time teaching gig. It’s funny how these things work.

I say small-time because I don’t teach enough to pay the bills. It is just enough, however, to fund my knitting habit until we *can* pay the bills with real income. It’s incredibly satisfying. I love talking to knitters, and I love helping people with their craft. I didn’t expect to be implementing Plan B quite like this, but I can’t say I’m unhappy about the way it’s working out.

She will be paying your pension

dixie — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 18:20:34 +0000

For someone who doesn’t like or want kids, I am surprisingly excited about the birth of my friends’ first child. Sarah is, apparently, adorable (confirmed by a source not related by blood — the opinions of parents are rarely credible). And I, after hearing the news at 3:00 am in a welcome phone call (during which I automatically converted the birth weight from kilos to pounds in my head, to my mild surprise), have been thinking about the kidlet ever since.

Which is a change from thinking about her mom, who has been on my mind since I got a text message yesterday morning saying the kidlet was on its way. Along with her dad, who has reportedly been very calm and capable through the ordeal. (“Ice in his veins” was one phrase used.)

I can’t be there, but I have a growing pile of wooly stuff for Sarah. And, now that I know she’s a she, I can go ahead and sew buttons on her Ugly Winter Warm Thing. With any luck, I’ll be able to head over and meet her by the time she reaches sentience. In the meantime, I think there’s a whole village waiting to raise this particular child, and she’s in pretty good hands with her parents. My handknits are there, and that’ll do for now.

Big news week

dixie — Thu, 15 May 2008 21:24:16 +0000

California says same-sex couples are allowed to pursue happiness. I’m still waiting for those evil married gay people to come to the door and try break up my marriage with their married happiness and love and fidelity.

…

Yep, still married.

…

There has also been quite a stir in my two primary extracurricular activities (knitting and Doctor Who — gaming, sadly, has taken a back seat since everyone I gamed with has moved away or the games have dissolved). I’ve been collecting links for a Ravelry newsletter article, and will cross-post here once that’s done. (The Rav links won’t do most of you any good, but there’s a good handful of external links as well.)

My annual weekend off

dixie — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 06:46:19 +0000

Every year and a half or so I find I’ve had enough and desperately need to get away for a few days. This time, I went to Santa Clara for this.

I strenuously object to the tired cliche “it’s not your grandmother’s [insert reference to knitting here]“, partially because if I had some of the knitting chops your grandmother has I’d be pretty pleased with myself, partially because it seems self-evident. I also object to dubbing Lucy Neatby “the Michael Jordan of knitting” because although Ms. Neatby is undeniably brilliant, Cat Bordhi immediately comes to mind when deciding who deserves that appellation. (Though I might be biased. I reserve Cat Bordhi’s new book for reward reading, when I manage to finish a piece of something I’m required to finish knitting.) I understand the oversight, however, as Lucy Neatby is an excellent person to help make the point that knitting is not necessarily about granny lace. (Not that there’s anything wrong with that. See above.)

The tone of the news segment seems to be “How cute, knitting has gone mainstream,” which is ignorant and has missed the trend by a few years. (Knitting in LA actually seems to be on the downswing, as evidenced by many yarn shops closing or moving or otherwise becoming unable to sustain their business.) But it does show y’all what the heck I was doing the weekend before last, and for that I post it for your viewing pleasure.

Representing

dixie — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 20:21:52 +0000

The new issue of Knitty is up, which I expect will excite only a fraction of the people who read this. I flipped through the patterns, found several I really like, and one that I will probably knit in the next few weeks. (Sorry Mountain Goat, your Christmas pressie will be late this year.)

There are three Irish designers in this issue of Knitty. And here I’d been thinking the “new wave” of knitting had passed Ireland by.

Knitty is a Canadian publication that initially had a primarily North American audience. After spending years reading through the knitting community, I enjoy the culture around Knitty as much as its content. (Even when the content isn’t to my taste, which has been often.) In some cases, I get to know people because they’ve published in Knitty and I start following their blogs. More often, I get to know people and then find out they’re submitting designs to Knitty.

I knit with the designer of this pattern, and the kid in the kiddie pictures is a friend’s kid. (He just broke his arm and has to have surgery tomorrow to get it set — send him warm thoughts.)

This lady saved my sorry arse this summer when I ran out of wool for a project. I found what I needed in her stash on the Rav and begged her to swap with me. She took a skein of Socks that Rock off me and I got to finish my shawl. And now she has a cute scarf pattern published.

And so on. I love reading about the designers and their inspirations. And, because it’s an odd quirk of my personality, I like knowing where they’re from. (It’s a habit I formed in college and never shook — whenever I meet a person, I want to know where they’re from. I often remember places of origin better than names.) I watch in awe as the strangest things become wildly popular things to knit. I don’t think there’s a sinner in the knitting community who hasn’t at least heard of Clapotis, though I might be the only knitter in the universe who doesn’t hate the design with an irrational passion but still hasn’t knitted one (or five).

The publication might be considered the flagship of the “new knitting.” You know, that knitting that might not be your grandmother’s knitting but we’re not saying that anymore because your grandmother’s knitting was pretty darn amazing and I’d really like to be able to knit like that thank you very much. So I’m happy to see Irish designers submitting their stuff and being included. I’m even interested in actually knitting one of the designs.

It could be that I noticed the Irish representation simply because I’m flying out there in a few short weeks and have done absolutely no planning.

In other news, I’m working like crazy and was accosted by door-to-door evangelists yesterday. By Tuesday, it had already been a long week. Now I’m in a twilight zone of long-weekness and juggling things, I’ve only dropped one thing so far, and it didn’t break.

Alternatives to real blogging

dixie — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 22:39:47 +0000

As time goes by, I have more to do and less to talk about. Well, to be fair, less that’s fit for public consumption. Most of my braincycles these days are taken up with two types of things:

1. Stuff that would make watching paint dry seem really interesting.

2. Stuff that is none of your damn business.

3. Stuff related to knitting. (Which sometimes, but not always, falls into one of the two previous categories.)

Last time something like this happened, I requested leave to include some extra content (knitting-related), and that worked out pretty well. Now, facing a month where I will either blog a great deal or almost none at all, I must address the issue again. I’ve signed up for Twitter and enjoy it. Would people object if I used something like LoudTwitter to compile all my Twitters (basically microblogs) and post ‘em here automagically once a day?

You need not phrase your answers in the form of a haiku, but I will give extra weight to your opinion if you do.