Dear Readers,
Each of the past four days, I feel better than the last. Unfortunately, I still feel on average, like crap, so while I'm a ways away from feeling on top of my game, I think positive progress is a good thing.
Whereas the anger and hurt and what not had been pretty incapacitating for the past couple of days, I felt productively angry for the first time in a while, and this is good. Resiliency is a great thing. I've thought about, if it comes to it, trying again with feminist studies programs, but I think I'm too disillusioned and career prospects are way too dire. But the wait isn't over.
I spent most of the last couple of days figuring out the pattern for this new sweater. I played with, probably a dozen different ideas on the computer, and actually tried knitting 4 things. This means, that I, tycho garen, actually made a swatch. It was a shock to me too. We'll ignore for the moment
We'll also ignore the fact that the decision that I have arrived at was in fact the first design that I eyeballed and decided against. This leads me to my first maxim of knitting: trust your first instinct, always. If you do this, swatching is irrelevant, if you doubt yourself, you must swatch endlessly.
I jest, but it does seem to hold true for me.
My second rule, I think, is that cuffs of sleeves, in cases where you want a snug, comfortable cuff, should be knit as the beginning of a typical sock in that yarn. I don't think that this is the right way to figure this out, but it does seem to work. I think my main grief with Elizabeth Zimmerman style sweaters (aside from the fact that the shaping/styling is mostly out of date by no, which is fine, but it means that you have to hack the system pretty consistently) is that sleeve dimensions don't vary as much as body circumference dimensions vary.
In other news... A friend of a friend found a kitten the other night, and it looks like we're going to get it tomorrow. It's not an absolute baby (looks more like it's 5-ish months old) but it appears to be sweet. I have to work today, but it looks like tomorrow is going to be spent gathering additional cat supplies and figuring out quarantine. I already have a vet appointment.
Anyway. Hope you're doing well too.
Cheers,
tycho