I have been remiss, I fear, in my blogging of late. Really any sort of real productivity. I finally, after about a week and a half, bit the bullet and got through the some emails that I needed to get through. Not

On the slate for this evening: a night of Richard Thompson. There’s a concert in town and I’m going to go to it. How cool is that.

My knitting continues apace, and I’ve really become quite interested in that project, which is nice. I may really want to be throwing myself full bore into my writing and knitting designing, and this knitting project is really neither: But, it is fun, and I think having it languish is really getting in the way of other projects. I’ve been feeling overloaded by my knitting of late, and getting that under control will I think increase the overall quality of my well being.

I’ve also finished watching the first two seasons of Star Trek Enterprise, which I never was able to sit through before (ie. when it was on the air). I’ve been watching it while I knit of late. I’m trying to figure out something constructive that I can say. It’s not particularly bad, it’s also not particularly good. The reason that I was interested in doing this is that I learned, somewhat after the fact that the third season was one extended story, in 26 parts or something. I really enjoy this kind of story telling, and so because I have a compulsive streak about watching old TV series in order, if possible, I’ve watched the first two episodes.

At some point I’m sure I’ll have something more coherent to say about Enterprise. I’m still searching for whatever that is.

Not much else on the mind, I must confess. I have to run out to a meeting now, but be well, and one of these days, things will return to normal around here.

Onward and Upward!

Curses!

I have become enthrawled with my knitting, and other fiber persuits and haven’t done much else in the past two days.

Strangely, I’m not overly saddened by this. Because:

I finished a sleeve!

I’ve been working on two large sweaters for months, and I have lots of sleeves to knit, and it seemed that all I was doing was knitting sleeves which never seemed to grow, and were constant drag on my consciousness and mood.

I think it’s hard to explain that you’re feeling kind of down, because you have so many sleeves to knit. Alas.

Anyway, I’ve finished one sleeve, and done the hard part of the next sleeve. And it’s flying. I’m sure I’ll grow to hate this at some point, but for the moment, I’m liking it. This sweater still needs a mamoth border/trim, but that’s only six rounds (plus a few inches of hem,) at any rate that feels pretty close.

Also this weekend I spun an almost balanced 85 gram (3 oz) skein of bluefaced-leicester wool. 2-ply. The yardage is about 195 yards. I’m pleased. And in other handspun-news: I ripped out a sweater that I’d been making out of hand-spun that had languished for too long. I think that at some point in the future, possibly this summer, I’m going to make a tomten-inspired jacket, in seed stitch with this yarn.

For those of you playing along at home that means that my current list of in-progress knitting is:

• The fine gauge grey sweater that needs: 2 sleeves, 1 collar (with plackets), and 1 shoulder saddle.
• The turkish tile sweater that I’m currently focusing on finishing.
• The Morocco sweater (that’s next up in the queue) that needs 1 sleeve ripped, a collar reknit, 2 sleeves knit, and a hem.
• 1 pair of plain worsted weight socks. (second sock)
• 1 first toe up stranded sock, that I don’t have a lot of loyalty or interest in finishing. (first sock)
• 1 fingering weight sock, plain. (first sock)
• 1 lace pi shawl on US 0s (not incredibly serious about working on this till summer.)

I’m having new ideas about sweaters that I want to make and I’m sort of stuck with a bunch of projects that very much reflect the kind of thing that I wanted to make last semester, and not so much with the direction that I want to work on in the future. This is likely always the case, but when I only work on one sweater at a time (and if I work on two, one is plain knitting and the other is pattern), it’s easier to finish a project before my tastes move on significantly.

Anyway, I have a class to teach this evening, and some other things on my plate, but hopefully I’ll get some writing in.

Onward and Upward!

While I don’t think I’ve been any more productive in the second half of the week as I was in the first half, I don’t feel as bad about that. Somehow.

Things are continuing to progress without much news. A quick (I hope) run down:

I haven’t really knit very much and I haven’t made a subversion commit in days which is a symbol of minimal acomplishment. I’ve been working which is cool. It’s becoming apparent that I need to start looking for a job, and current yarn store gig looks like it might switch to a one-day a week plus weekends, gig. A few things are pinned on graduate school acceptance. If it happens, g-d willing then I think I have a day job lined up for the summer. If it doesn’t, well, drawing board.

In other news, I think I’m nearing compleation on the sleeve that I’ve been working on a lot this week. I’m probably… an inch and a half from being I can’t tell. When I hold it up to my body, it looks like 1.5 inches. When I lay it out on the floor against other sweaters I--variously--find that I need to need 4.5-6 more inches.This is complicated by the fact that the neck steek hasn’t been cut. and the sweater won’t lay right as a result.

I’m worried if I have to knit more than say 2 more inches that the sleeve is going to be too narrow. Which is like my biggest fear in sweater knitting. My thought is that I’m going to spend some time this weekend (after the next inch and a half) knitting the hem and edge of the sweater so that I can try it on and settle this debate for once and for all.

In other news. Not much. I’ll be in touch this weekend, I promise.

Cheers, tycho…

Onward and Upward!

I don’t have a lot of news to post. Maybe that’s a good sign. I’m doing better, I think.

It’s a shame I spent all of my free time in the last few days feeling so crummy: at least I made some knitting progress. The good news is that I’m going to be well groomed (haircut in a few), and fed (just finished breakfast), and I’ll have run an important errand before work. So rock on.

I present you with a youTube gem:

This is a video of three men singing in a doorway, and that’s about it. The song is “Sally Free and Easy” which is a Cyril Tawney song, but my dad (and I seem to agree that it’s a very Bert Jansch sort of song.) Anyway, what’s remarkable is that the guy on the right is none other than the amazing “Nic Jones.” Nic Jones was/is an amazing guitar player and singer who stopped performing in the early (?) eighties after sustaining rather serious injuries in a car accident, this is made even more tragic by virtue of the fact that the bulk of--and arguably--his best albums¹ have been held hostage by a record company determine to not rerelease them to CD.

Sigh.

Anyway, it’s good to see him singing. It’s good to hear such a cool song. And it’s good to see that the kind of singing that I most enjoy (little groups of people singing in doorways) is alive and well. It’s something that can’t really be recorded, but it’s nice to know that it’s still around.

Note: I meant to post this yesterday, but neglected to hit the post button. Apparently. Here it is for archival purposes. I’ll have something more contemporary, in a little bit.--tg

Well. I just wanted to post a quick little something, because it’s what I do, and I don’t quite have time for more.

This whole “hurry up and wait” for notifications from graduate schools I think is really getting to me. I’m having a hard time concentrating on anything particularly meaningful, and I haven’t had work in a while to structure my time. And one thing after another.

The end result: I haven’t really been able to concentrate on anything terribly complex in days. So, I’ve resolved myself to knitting, and spinning, consuming media (podcasts, television, etc.) and just waiting it out. Unlike many of anxiety producing things in our lives, this is something that I really truly have no control over.

On the upside, I’ve made great strides with my knitting, and I’m spinning BFL 2ply, which looks really nice, if a bit boring (but hopefully someone will dye the yarn once it’s yarn.) And I’m just chugging a long.

I think my main project of the moment is getting the new tealArt site up and running. It’s mostly pretty good, but I do have some work left to do that I’m slowly clawing away at. Lets not be surprised if I have a number of sites that look a lot like tychoish.

I’ve also started to do some drafting long hand, and that seems to be the only way that I can get output managed at the moment. Though not ideal, it’s pretty good, and the truth is that writing with my pen--I’ll write something about it at some point when I’m in better shape--is a really pleasurable experience, and I’m having fun doing things a little different.

Anyway, I’m still alive. Hope you are too. I’ll be in touch.

Onward and Upward!

Just the usual tycho garen journal post.

I went dancing last night. My parents run an--actually pretty sizeable--dance group on mondays and I go from time to time, because the people don’t suck

Ok Rant about dance politics. There are dancers who read this so feel free to comment. Generally dance groups have pretty sucky interpersonal politics. Or at least all the ones I seem to have been a part of recently, do. There’s something about confusing the kinetic connection of dance with actual sentiment, that brings out the socially inept and emotionally stunted. Which is fine, if you don’t have to interact much outside of the dancing. But inevitably you do, and it all bleeds into each other, because dancing is intensely social. sigh Anyway. Clif notes versions, many groups that I’ve been in recently/and am still in, suck: this one doesn’t.

I thought I failed at shocking my sleep schedule a bit. I got some good knitting done. My project is to move to a more 10:30-6:00 schedule. My body really wants 7 hours of sleep, and I have a hard time pulling myself up if I try and constrict it too much. A really hard time. The post title refers to the fact that was able to only sleep six hours

So I’m just going to go with the flow and go to bed earlier.

I got a lot of knitting done last night. Which is good. Nothing completed, of course, but these things happen. Again, pictures wouldn’t communicate very much new, so sorry. I’m working on a sleeve and a sock.

I also got some spinning done last night. I want to do some conventional three-plying because I suck at Navajo plying, but for now I’m just going to work on some two ply, until I get my wheel (which has been ordered). And, there’s nothing wrong with two ply, and I’m good at it. It’s good to be good at it.

I haven’t been writing. Not even a lot of editing. Thanks, and welcome to all the people from the feminist science fiction blog.

I don’t know what to say about that other than “I’m thinking about it.” And with luck, this too shall pass.

Here’s a journal entry. I’ve used headings to facilitate your moving through the topics if you really don’t want to hear about my attempts to sleep less, or the knitting, or whatever.

Sleep

So, my body was really really intent upon the whole 11-7am sleeping schedule. Really intent. This maps pretty well onto when it gets really light in my room, and I’ve trained my body to wake up when it gets light out. I think if I’m going to zap my sleep schedule again, I’m going to have to use an afternoon nap. I really just want to sleep like an hour less, and shave that off the morning. Sigh. Well, we make do with what we’re given, right?

Knitting

This is why I don’t make a very good knit-blogger. I knit small things, and I often get cranky about my knitting.

I’m still ripping out the sleeve, I haven’t started, but it’s there in a pile in the corner, and I’ve already moved on to knitting a sleeve on the tile sweater and the tedious part of that is done. So I just have to continue on knitting this sleeve for about 16 inches and then knit a short cuff.

I’ve decided that I need to finish both of my sweaters in progress before I start another sweater. So I’m going to be focusing on knitting like gangbusters this week to try and finish the sleeve. Here’s hoping.

If I decide that I need another project, I’m going to restrict myself to socks. I made a plain sock yesterday, mostly while watching live music. It was good. I have the next toe started.

Writing

Things transpiring as reported here regarding the editing process. My goal for this week is to avoid feeling stuck by this process. I think I’m going to post a little snip today or tomorrow here. There’ll be a “breakout” tag if you’re interested.

I think I am going to try some longhand writing, because that’s fun, and I haven’t been doing enough of that.

Academia

Academic things have been taking a lot of my brain cycles in the past few days. I’m waiting on the reply of an important email, which is stressful. This whole being stuck and thus prevented from making a decision--any decision--sucks. I look forward to returning to being a human being again.

I read a number of articles this week in my field that were very very interesting, but sort of annoyingly quantitative. While I tend to walk in circles where I am the most quantitate person in the (metaphorical) room, I forget sometimes, how not quantative I am.

I mean don’t get me wrong, inferential statistics have a lot of power for detecting small (but important) effects and relationships, and I do enjoy the way that good data can allow you to make relatively definitive, albeit narrow, statements of fact. “This is happening.” or “This doesn’t happen.”

At the same time, there are situations where this kind of approach cannot be particularly effective, particularly since there are lots of variables that social scientist can’t (and wouldn’t want to) manipulate experimentally, and in these situations, the quantative approach fails at being both definitive (because of procedure) and descriptive (because of epistemic values.) And it just makes me ornery.

Great. Another thing in my life to be angsty about.

Have a good day. I’ll be in touch. I swear.

Onward and Upward!

I didn’t write yesterday. I didn’t even write a blog post (which you already know, but I was just underscoring.) But I did edit, and that was a victory. What follows is a reflection on what I’ve been up to for the past few days, because. I haven’t done this in a few days and I feel out of touch.

I’ve decided that I need to rip back, damn near the whole sleeve of the morocco sweater. This is because I have nearly enough length for the sleeve and I have 50 rows of the pattern left and the sleeve is still 7-8 inches wide (so 14-16 inches around.) For those playing along at home, I like my armholes to be between 9 and 10 inches long (so 18-20 inches around.) That’s not enough decreasing, and it’s not something I can just rip back a little to correct. To be fair, this is a jacket so the armholes have to be a little longer, which is why I didn’t catch the problem sooner.

I can’t bring myself to rip it out quite yet, so I’ve moved on to knitting the turkish tile, which I’m really enjoying. I had a lot of “knitting back and forth in color-work short rows” to shape the top of the sleeves and the shoulders.

While I think the “tile,” is a good sweater and I really liked the pattern, and it’ll fill a niche in my wardrobe, there are a couple of things that bug be a little bit about the pattern: I was hoping for something that looked a little bit darker, and I’m just not sure that I’m absolutly love this sweater the way I like some sweaters.

I haven’t had a sweater like that in a while, but these things happen, and it’s true that these sweaters that I’m working on will turn out. I just the the feeling that I’ve gone an entire year without knitting a sweater that I really really like.

I think I’m having an existential crisis and my knitting isn’t immune.

I didn’t get any writing done yesterday, but I was able to help a friend out with his computer (good!) and I got some editing done. I’ve both started a pile of hard copy edits on the novella that I’m progressing through steadily, and I have two sections/pages of the hypertext that I’m pleased with enough to sort of let go of for now. I think I’ll probably post them here in the next few days, just because some publication is a good thing, and I need to start getting my fiction “out there” even if it is just on the ‘blog.

The suck-y thing about editing like this is that its really tiring work, and you don’t have very much to show for it. Like “I’ve just spent an hour annotating three pages and now, once I go through it again at the computer, which will take another significant portion of time,” then they maybe won’t suck as much. Because the editing process must be a sort of private affair, it’s hard to recognize this kind of work as part of “being productive.”

Other than that there isn’t much. I think I need to zap my sleep schedule again tonight: my body has gotten too comfortable with the 11:30-7:45 routine, and that’s not where I’d like it. Though in the grad scheme of things that’s better than the 12:30-9:00 that I had been stuck in for weeks before. If I’m not ready to get in bed at 10 and read (or write longhand) for a bit before I go to bed, I’m going to try sleeping 3-6, in an effort to shock myself into something more reasonable. The knitting time will be nice, and I think if I went for a walk or something midday it might help reinforce things.

Maybe I’m thinking about these things too much.

Time to feign productivity.

Onward and Upward!